An Assessment of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of the States of Southeast Asia

All 11 states in Southeast Asia have signed and ratified the Paris Agreement and ten of them have submitted their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for the 5-year cycle. It was not possible to review Myanmar’s NDC due to the on-going political situation. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which covers all states in Southeast Asia except Timor-Leste, has also issued a statement of support to the Paris Agreement. Ahead of the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the ASEAN has released its first integrated report on climate change, the “ASEAN State of Climate Change Report (ASCCR): Current status and outlook of the ASEAN region Toward the ASEAN climate vision 2050”, which outlines the goal of the region to achieve net-zero GHG emissions as early as possible. The report reiterates ASEAN’s position in contributing towards the global trends of a ‘decarbonizing revolution’ to pursue net-zero emissions as soon as possible in the latter half of the 21st century.

This assessment aims to present a brief analysis of the NDC of each state in Southeast Asia and provides insight into how a future ‘decarbonized’ region might look like.