Southeast Asia

In Southeast Asia, artists are transforming the region's trash into a source of inspiration. With over a million of tonnes of plastic waste entering the sea annually, these artists are advocating for sustainability through their work. They redefine beauty from discarded objects, addressing pollution issues creatively, inviting audiences to rethink their relationship with waste and embrace a more responsible approach to consumption.

The  Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) was revived in 2018 in part to provide its members with an alternative source of funding to enhance connectivity in mainland Southeast Asia. Within an area congested with multilateral frameworks, overlapping agendas and an abundance of funding, ACMECS faces formidable challenges ahead to stay relevant. 

Human beings have a two-million-year history on Earth, and for more than 10,000 years, we have been supported by a stable climate system, the scientists say in their 2022 warning. What brought about a hospitable setting for the human species to flourish and spread across the planet was a change in climate that warmed Earth at the close of the ice age. Glaciers retreated, forests spread out and huge mammals that survived in colder climes, became extinct.

Southeast Asia’s energy transition needs not only to be accelerated in terms of technology deployments but also to be processed and accomplished justly. Doing so requires hinging the region’s energy transition plans and activities to the distributive, recognition, procedural, and restorative tenets of justice.

As the world grapples with the pressing and existential threat of climate change, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) needs to take more immediate action. While the agriculture sector has discussed the outcomes of COP27 in Bangkok held in December 2022, ASEAN as a body has remained conspicuously silent on its views on the outcomes of the COP27 (e.g., the Loss and Damage financial facility), its implications for Southeast Asia, and what the region should prioritize for COP28.

Indonesia picks up the theme “ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth”. President Joko Widodo stated that: “ASEAN needs to be stable and peace, an epicentrum for global stability. ASEAN also needs to be consistent in enforcing international law and avoid being proxy to anyone. ASEAN needs to be a region of dignity that upholds high humanity and democracy”.

Southeast Asia’s transformation and navigation through the last few COVID-19-affected years now presents new challenges and opportunities. The region has grown digitally substantially, though political stability is always questionable. Climate change, energy and environmental sustainability present significant issues to address in 2023 and beyond.

Egypt hosted the Conference of Parties (COP) 27 on 6 - 20 November 2022, with the slogan “Together for Implementation”. COP27 was branded as an African COP, and was meant to foreground climate issues that are priorities for African and other developing countries. Accordingly, the main issues during the negotiations at the conference were that of financing for Loss and Damage, Fossil Fuels and Just Energy Transition Partnership.