The clean energy transition is often measured in gigawatts, investment and tonnes of critical minerals. But its success will ultimately be measured much closer to home: Can families access reliable electricity? Can businesses grow? Can communities connect to healthcare and education? And who benefits from the industries being built?
The Indo-Pacific will play a major role in shaping the world's clean energy future. It brings together fast-growing economies, clean technology manufacturing hubs, critical mineral resources and Pacific island countries confronting some of the world's most acute energy-security and climate-resilience challenges.
Western Australia makes many of those dynamics visible in one place. It combines strong renewable energy potential with established mining and energy industries, growing investment in clean infrastructure, and First Nations leadership that will be central to how new projects are developed and shared.
Its location also connects Australia to economies across the Indian Ocean, Asia and the wider Indo-Pacific.
Ahead of Global Citizen NOW: Perth, here are 10 questions (and 10 answers) about what it will take to expand reliable clean energy and economic opportunity across the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
1. The Indo-Pacific needs much more energy. Can it meet demand without locking in more fossil fuels?
It can — but only if clean energy grows faster than demand.
Southeast Asia alone is expected to account for nearly 20% of global energy demand growth to 2035 under current policy settings. At the same time, coal has supplied most of the region's growth in electricity generation since 2015.
The challenge looks different across the Pacific. In the Federated States of Micronesia, for example, two-thirds of households in Chuuk State lack electricity, while imported diesel accounts for more than 85% of electricity generation nationally. New solar mini-grids, home solar systems and more resilient infrastructure show how clean energy can tackle access, affordability and climate resilience at the same time.
The solution is not simply building more solar and wind power. Countries need renewable generation alongside energy efficiency, storage and reliable grids.
Western Australia matters because it is already building those pieces at scale. In May 2026, 10 new renewable energy and battery projects were approved, delivering nearly 1.9 GW of generation and 3.7 GWh of battery storage.
The challenge for the wider region is turning projects like these into affordable, reliable power for more people.
2. Why aren't solar panels and wind turbines enough?
Because generating electricity is only half the job. It also has to reach people when and where they need it.
That requires grids — the transmission lines and networks that move electricity — and storage that can hold power for later.
Across Southeast Asia, transmission and distribution networks need to more than double in length by 2050. The ASEAN Power Grid could also allow countries to move renewable electricity across borders, with an estimated US$27 billion needed for planned cross-border connections by 2040.
This is one reason infrastructure is central to Global Citizen NOW: Perth: expanding clean energy access depends on building the systems that make electricity reliable, not merely generating it.
3. Why are critical minerals suddenly part of energy policy?
Because the clean energy economy still needs materials from the ground.
Batteries require minerals such as lithium, nickel and graphite. Grids need copper. Wind turbines and electric motors can require rare earth elements.
Demand is rising quickly: global battery demand grew by more than 35% in 2025, while lithium demand has grown by around 25% annually over the past two years.
Western Australia makes this challenge particularly visible. It combines significant critical mineral resources with decades of mining and processing expertise, giving it an important role in efforts to build more diverse and resilient clean energy supply chains.
But this is not simply a Western Australian question.
Across the Indo-Pacific and beyond, the opportunity is to create critical mineral and clean energy supply chains that are more resilient, responsibly managed and capable of generating economic value in more places.
If the clean energy transition is going to be global, its economic benefits cannot be concentrated in only a handful of countries.
4. How can Western Australia turn its critical minerals into a clean energy economy?
By making mining the starting point, rather than the end of the story. When a country exports raw minerals but imports the batteries and technologies made from them, much of the higher-value processing, technology and employment happens elsewhere.
One part of the answer is doing more with those minerals locally: processing them and developing higher-value materials and products. Western Australia’s Battery and Critical Mineral Strategy 2024–2030 explicitly aims to expand onshore processing and manufacturing.
The transition can be more than a race for resources. With the right industrial policies and partnerships, it can create new manufacturing, skills and jobs across the region.
That is also why the green industry is a priority for Global Citizen NOW: Perth. The opportunity is not simply to mobilize investment into renewable generation, but to help accelerate industries such as green iron and battery supply chains that can create jobs and economic opportunity alongside lower emissions.
Western Australia can help demonstrate what that shift looks like — but the bigger goal is to unlock similar opportunities across the Indo-Pacific and globally.
5. Who will pay for everything that needs to be built?
This may be one of the hardest problems.
Clean energy requires major upfront investment, and borrowing costs are not equal everywhere. In much of Southeast Asia, the cost of capital can be around twice as high as in advanced economies and China.
That is where climate and development finance become practical tools.
Governments and development banks can use guarantees, concessional finance and other mechanisms to lower risk and attract private investment. Clearer regulations can reduce uncertainty too.
Perth can help connect both sides of this equation: governments and communities seeking investment, and the businesses, investors and development institutions capable of providing it.
Global Citizen NOW: Perth is therefore focused not simply on discussing finance, but on mobilizing investment into renewable energy, resilient grids and infrastructure that powers communities and economies.
And the ambition extends beyond Western Australia: the goal is to use the convening to help mobilize capital and partnerships capable of expanding clean energy access much further.
6. What does clean energy have to do with internet access, schools and jobs?
More than it might seem.
A reliable internet connection still needs electricity. So do mobile networks, hospitals, schools, refrigeration, small businesses and the devices people use to access digital services. Close to 1 billion people in low- and lower-middle-income countries are served by health facilities with either unreliable electricity or no electricity at all.
That is why energy access and digital connectivity should be considered together.
Reliable electricity can help a rural clinic use diagnostic equipment, allow a student to learn online or enable an entrepreneur to participate in the digital economy. And the economic impact of better connectivity can be significant: the World Bank estimates that a 10% increase in broadband adoption can increase GDP by up to 2% in low- and middle-income countries, while access to fast internet can increase an individual's probability of employment by up to 13%.
This is an important part of the Perth agenda: clean energy is not the end goal by itself. The bigger objective is what reliable power and connectivity allow people to do — access healthcare and education, create businesses, find jobs and participate more fully in economic life.
7. Can countries solve these problems alone?
Not efficiently. No single country has every mineral, technology, financing source or energy resource it needs.
Regional cooperation can connect those strengths. Cross-border electricity trading can move renewable power from resource-rich areas to demand centres. Shared supply chains can connect minerals, processing and manufacturing. Regional partnerships can also improve access to capital, technology and skills.
The ASEAN Power Grid is one example of how deeper regional integration could strengthen reliability and move lower-cost renewable power across borders.
This is another reason to convene in Perth.
Western Australia's economic relationships across Asia, its position on the Indian Ocean and Australia's links with Pacific countries create a useful meeting point for regional partners.
Perth provides an opportunity to turn those connections into stronger partnerships across borders — linking energy, investment, infrastructure and economic opportunity throughout the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
8. Can the transition be inclusive if Indigenous communities don't share in its benefits or have a stake in its future?
Not fully. This question is particularly important in Australia because around 43% of the renewable energy infrastructure needed to reach net zero by 2060 is expected to be located on recognised First Nations land. Those projects could represent more than $20.9 billion in investment and an estimated 700,000 direct jobs.
But hosting infrastructure is not the same as sharing in its value.
Leading practice principles include early engagement, jobs and procurement, partnerships and equity ownership — allowing communities to hold a financial stake in projects and potentially share in their long-term returns.
For Western Australia, this creates an opportunity to demonstrate what meaningful First Nations participation and ownership can look like in practice — a transition built with communities, rather than simply around them.
But the principle travels much further.
Across the Indo-Pacific and globally, Indigenous peoples and local communities must have a meaningful role in decisions about land, resources and infrastructure that affect their lives.
The lesson Perth can help elevate is not that one model will work everywhere. It is that an inclusive transition should be shaped with communities — not simply delivered to them.
9. If the challenge is global, why convene in Perth?
Because solving a global problem still requires places where the right people can come together and commit to action. Perth offers that meeting point.
Western Australia is already grappling with many of the issues that will determine whether the clean energy transition succeeds: renewable energy deployment, grid infrastructure, critical minerals, green industry, access to investment and First Nations participation.
But Global Citizen NOW: Perth is not about building a transition for Western Australia alone.
The summit is designed to use Perth as a platform for mobilizing investment, partnerships and commitments with a much wider reach.
Its ambitions include helping expand reliable and affordable electricity access to up to 4 million homes around the world and delivering at least 2.5 GW of additional renewable energy capacity.
It also aims to accelerate investment in green industrial projects, including green iron and battery supply chains; strengthen investment in nature protection; support initiatives connecting energy with healthcare, education and economic opportunity; and elevate First Nations, Indigenous and Indo-Pacific leadership.
These objectives connect what is happening in Western Australia to a much larger proposition:
Can the capital, partnerships and ideas brought together in Perth help deliver clean energy and greater opportunity elsewhere?
That is why Perth matters. Not because the clean energy transition begins or ends there, but because it offers a place to bring together the resources, expertise, capital and leadership needed to push solutions further.
10. Where does COP31 fit — and what happens after Perth?
COP31 is an important next milestone. It will take place in Antalya, Türkiye, from November 9–20, 2026. Türkiye is the host, while Australia's Chris Bowen will serve as President of Negotiations, working within the Türkiye-Australia partnership for the conference.
Global Citizen NOW: Perth takes place beforehand. That gives the convening a different role: to advance investments, partnerships and commitments before leaders and negotiators gather in Antalya — and to build relationships capable of continuing long after COP31 ends.
Because neither Perth nor COP31 is the destination.
The real measure of progress will be what happens afterwards: whether electricity reaches more homes, whether renewable capacity comes online, whether grids become more resilient, whether green industries create jobs, whether communities gain better digital connectivity and whether First Nations, Indigenous and Pacific leaders have a meaningful stake in the transition.
Western Australia gives us a place to examine many of those challenges up close.
The Indo-Pacific gives us a region where solving them has enormous global consequences far beyond its borders.
And Global Citizen NOW: Perth provides a moment to bring together people capable of turning those solutions into commitments that travel much further.
Because ultimately, this isn't a story about Perth. It's about whether the clean energy transition can deliver reliable power, economic opportunity and a fairer future for people — wherever they live.