“I had always liked energy and then I recognized that energy research and consulting can have a huge impact on the development of our planet earth” – how Jessie Todoc helps to create a sustainable energy policy in Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia.

Jessie L. Todoc, Senior Project Coordinator, CEERD, Bangkok, Thailand

“Currently we are conducting a variety of very interesting and demanding projects in the area of renewable energies at CEERD”, Jessie told us when we met him in a small Japanese restaurant just a few meters of the main CEERD office in Bangkok. “In one project, for example, we are trying to analyze and find ways how to increase the ac-cess to local sources of financing for renewable energy investments. Together with local banks in the Philippines, we plan to design innovative financing instruments by conducting case studies and looking at experiences and approaches in Thailand and European Union. We are also working with a distribution utility in the Philippines to de-velop renewable distributed generation projects to meet growing local energy needs. Yet another project is wor-king with three growth cities in Southeast Asia in integra-ting sustainable energy policies in mainstream urban deve-lopment planning. - This small sample of our work shows you the diversity and scope of our projects. You can ima-gine that it is both exciting and challenging work.” Jessie claims full of enthusiasm.
Let us give you a short impression of our discussion with Jessie Todoc in the following lines. You might be able to read more about him and his interesting projects in our book “MyImpact”.

Jessie L. Todoc’s selected quotations:
“My field is energy. I focus on energy policy and regula-tion. My work is mainly to conduct research and assist governments of countries and cities on how to assure energy provision in a more sustainable way. A lot of my work is done in the Philippines, Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia.”

“In developing countries energy provision is a huge need and at the same time a big challenge, especially conside-ring all the environmental impacts. Therefore we focus on studying the impact on the environment of the different energy systems (supply, transformation, transportation and consumption) and analyze various regional policy alternatives that would aim to reduce the environmental impact of the energy systems.”

„I really like the content of my job, I appreciate very much the financial means it provides for me and my family and I enjoy the atmosphere and quality of work we achieve at CEERD.“

“I appreciate very much the work done by academic re-searchers. In fact, many of our projects in CEERD benefit from the results of their research. However, pure aca-demic research would not be an option for me at least at the moment. I would like to work and learn with people in the field in which I can immediately see the benefit of my work.”

“I feel very strongly about my family, about providing good environment for them – not only in material terms but also in terms of time and attention.”

Some background on Jessie L. Todoc:
Jessie L. Todoc was born in the Philippines and studied in Manila and Thailand. He studied electrical engineering and industrial economics, although energy policy and regula-tion soon became a focus field. He worked in the Philippi-nes with the Energy Regulatory Board (now Energy Regu-latory Commission) and Department of Energy. In 1996 Jessie’s wife received a scholarship at a renowned insti-tution in Thailand, so he was glad to having had the opportunity to join CEERD and follow her. The couple has lived since then in Bangkok, where Jessie focuses his work on energy policy in the region, and recently especially on projects helping to develop his home country.

Some background on CEERD (Centre for Energy Environment Resources Development):
The Centre for Energy Environment Resources Develop-ment (CEERD) is part of the Foundation for International Human Resource Deve-lopment (FIHRD), a Thai Foundation. CEERD conducts training and research on energy-environment economics, plan-ning, modeling, policy, markets, and technology in the framework of international cooperation projects to streng-then the capacity of national governments in Asia and the Pacific in energy-environment planning and policy formu-lation.
It also provides information and knowledge on current issues and developments in energy-environment affecting Asia and the Pacific.
CEERD aims to be premier observatory and intelligence unit of Asia-Pacific energy systems and energy policies. CEERD focuses its energy and environment goals to sup-port sustainable development and stresses the fact that energy and environment systems impact other world re-sources.

If you would like to engage with the work of Jessie Todoc or to know more about his organization “CEERD”, please visit www.ceerd.net
or, for more specific opportunities, contact joanna.stefanska@myimpact.ch or wolfgang.hafenmayer@myimpact.ch directly