Expanding sustainable energy in Asia

Promoting mutually beneficial cooperation

The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) of Vietnam, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and China’s Yunnan and Guangxi provinces, was established in 1992 as an Asian Development Bank (ADB) initiative to facilitate and promote mutually beneficial economic cooperation among the GMS countries.

Assessing environmental and social impacts at the design stage

For the expanding energy sector in Asia to be sustainable, its environmental impacts must be accounted for and incorporated into project design and implementation.

With project involvement from 2018 to 2020, Ramboll professionals from France, India, Malaysia and the US worked together on this ADB project, on behalf of EDF, providing four priority regional power interconnections in the Greater Mekong region, to be commissioned from 2022-2030.

Ramboll provided preliminary environmental and social impact assessments to cross-border transmission lines in Lao, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Our work included:

• Providing rapid environmental assessments and initial environmental examination reports
• Undertaking a climate change risk assessment
• Providing a social impact assessment including resettlement and indigenous peoples
• Designing project consultation and information disclosure plan
• Conducting socioeconomic surveys
• Conducting a public perception survey to identify public problems and development priorities
• Reviewing government policies and strategies for poverty reduction and gender development
• Conducting a poverty and social analysis

This project supports one of the goals of the GMS nations, to create a sustainable regional power trade to reap economic and technical benefits, and better balance generation resources with electricity needs across national borders.