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ASEAN is the intergovernmental organization of ten Southeast Asian countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. During the heightened regional unrest in the 1960s, the organization was created to enhance collective security by “cooperation in the economic, social, cultural, technical, educational and other fields.” Like many other intergovernmental organizations, they have observer states, including China, Japan, and India, to maintain diplomatic coordination between the states and the organization.
As more members like Cambodia and Myanmar joined ASEAN at the end of the 20th century, the regional organization would have to adapt to new international issues and change its priorities, including climate change, immigration, and security concerns. Climate change is an increasingly crucial topic due to the geography of many member states, which consist of all islands or have many coastal regions with numerous people living there. In the face of a huge demand for reduction and preventative measures, ASEAN will serve as a significant forum for countries to work together on the challenges ahead.
Southeast Asia’s Climate Challenge
Climate change has brought many challenges for Southeast Asian states. For example, growing floods will affect local communities’ safety and long-term well-being, especially water access and food sustainability. Other natural disasters worsened by climate change, such as tropical storms, will also affect the stability and growth of the region. Therefore, effective initiatives must be in place to properly allocate resources before people burdened with disasters become distrustful of governments. One such initiative should be to reform towards renewable energy.
Renewable energy is important in Southeast Asia as pollution from fossil fuels and combustion engine vehicles will negatively affect a region with large urban centers like Singapore, Bangkok, and Ho Chi Minh City. In addition, climate change disasters can affect rural areas, especially communities with fewer resources and those tending to important agriculture for urban areas. However, Southeast Asian countries have an unbalanced development of renewable energy. Vietnam leads by a long shot in solar and wind energy, while at the bottom, Brunei, Timor Leste, and Laos have not developed renewable energy in 2024. As such, collaborative efforts would be beneficial in ensuring all member states are in renewable energy development. As a region looking at larger counterparts in China, Japan, and South Korea, carbon pollution will have a harsh impact on the aging populations and younger generations.
Rising Temperatures and Policy Fractures?
The ASEAN members are most likely to find issues in fully committing to preventing the tragedy of the commons situation. Due to the lack of collective agreements between the member states on developing new non-carbon-emitting power generation, using space to generate renewable energy will foreseeably become more competitive between the countries. Given the regular use of rivers and the complicated ocean borders that the countries share with China, the new construction of wind and hydropower stations will likely come with complicated negotiations between them. There are exceptions to the power grid connection where it is okay to share energy. However, hosting renewable energy plants must be planned out efficiently so places needing power and those generating are not in disagreement.
As such, the countries will need to prepare to make compromises for the benefit of all. An example for future projects would be the Mekong River Commission, an interstate organization in the region intended to create cooperation on water use from the river. ASEAN may even establish an independent authority to make final decisions on land use for renewable energy to avoid delays in moving away from coal as a power generator.
Apart from resolving land use conflicts, ASEAN should also work to increase the free flow of people for opportunities connected to renewable energy or away from climate change-related hardship. Within the charter of ASEAN, there is currently a good commitment to democratic decision-making and people-oriented decisions; however, as seen with NAFTA, investment in free trade agreements will not immediately improve opportunities for people. So, the members will have to commit to more cooperative assistance to ensure that people living in ASEAN countries have more opportunities due to more free-flowing trade. Otherwise, it could affect the efficiency of the organization’s aims. In addition, ASEAN does not act as an independent governmental authority and thus cannot respond to emergencies that arise at a regional level, compared to the EU releasing funds to member states during COVID-19.
Current Collaborative Efforts and Future Prospects
Currently, the priority for ASEAN states should be to increase investments to transition away from the growing coal use in the region without hampering economic growth. Most ASEAN members show their political will for it by signing pledges to reduce coal use. However, the implementation will require different paths for each member state because of the various challenges and trade-offs. For example, those along the Mekong River must consider the environmental costs of using hydro dams to power their countries. Otherwise, it will significantly damage their environment and affect the livelihoods of people who fish on the river. In addition, the countries will need to hold more inclusive negotiations to resolve potential disputes over water use from shared rivers.
The ASEAN member nations have already joined their commitments to improving power efficiency by sharing electricity among power grids. This infrastructure would be a good way to provide extra stability when climate disasters affect access to power-generating resources. Agreements such as these also make purchasing electricity more affordable due to the lower costs associated with renewable energy. Moreover, ASEAN allows the nations to act in concert when interacting with external regional actors like Australia, China, India, and Japan. The member states acting as a united regional power in discussions with external regional actors will give them more political weight than one nation alone trying to negotiate better deals.
In this way, ASEAN is similar to the European Union before its development as a regional authority, where member nations joined and acted as a collaborative organization known as the European Community. Given the current political circumstances in Myanmar for its military coup, Indonesia, and Thailand having populist leaders, climate change can be a catalyst for deepening ties among the ASEAN countries, increasing its importance in future Southeast Asia’s international relations.
Edited by Alexandra Hu
