Brief Analysis - ASEAN Must Do More for Accelerating Just Energy Transition - IESR_page-0001

ASEAN Must Do More for Accelerating Just Energy Transition

This briefing paper highlights the paradox facing ASEAN: on the one hand, it aspires to be the world’s ‘growth epicenter’, while on the other, it is at the ‘epicenter of climate change’. Driven by economic growth and growing energy demand, ASEAN’s contribution to global emissions is also rising, bringing significant consequences for its population. Southeast Asia’s geographic and demographic characteristics—low-lying areas, dense populations, infrastructure challenges, and reliance on agriculture—make the region highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The Asia Pacific Disaster Report 2024 even warns that climate-related disasters are on the rise, having affected more than 580 million people in the past five decades, with devastating financial losses, reaching an average Annual Loss (AAL) of US$86.5 billion, far exceeding the investment needed to meet clean energy targets.

Beyond the direct costs of disasters, inaction on climate change also creates systemic costs, such as air pollution causing thousands of deaths annually, burdens on health systems, and food insecurity. A UNEP 2024 study estimates that air pollution will cost countries like Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia tens of billions of USD annually by 2030. Therefore, this policy brief calls for an urgent transformation for ASEAN: the region must decouple economic growth from emissions by accelerating the energy transition towards sustainable green development.

Reviewers
Arief Rosadi
Benita Sashia Jayanti

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ASEAN Must Do More for Accelerating Just Energy Transition

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