Singapore sets 2027 climate push for ASEAN with CARAT
By Andrea B. Ramos
Singapore is launching a three-year regional initiative aimed at strengthening climate adaptation across Southeast Asia, as it prepares to assume the ASEAN chairmanship in 2027.
Singapore Ambassador to the Philippines Constance See Sin Yuan announced the Climate Adaptation and Resilience for ASEAN’s Transformation (CARAT) initiative during a climate security forum organized by the Stratbase Institute and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Manila.
CARAT will help ASEAN countries strengthen adaptation policymaking, implement national plans, and improve access to adaptation financing — areas Singapore sees as increasingly critical as climate risks intensify across the region.
See said that while reducing carbon emissions remains important, adaptation is an equally pressing challenge for many Southeast Asian countries.
“What this could possibly include would be roadmaps for adaptation, recommendations, sharing of best practices. And this would form the basis for ASEAN member states to maybe have those conversations about adaptation financing,” the ambassador said.
CARAT will also provide a platform for follow-up work stemming from Singapore’s 2024 study on the impact of climate change on agricultural production across ASEAN, the results of which were published this year.
Vietnam: Connect clean-energy projects
Vietnam Ambassador to the Philippines Lai Thai Binh, meanwhile, called for stronger regional cooperation on clean and renewable energy, stressing the need to connect initiatives across ASEAN to meet growing energy and climate challenges.
“For example, Vietnam is working closely with Laos, Malaysia, and Singapore to promote clean energy, to promote renewable electricity and power, in order to contribute more to the urgent demand in the region,” the ambassador of Vietnam said.
Binh said continuity between successive ASEAN chairmanships remains essential to making regional cooperation more effective. At the same time, ASEAN must adapt its priorities as new challenges emerge.
“In order to combine continuity and meeting the new requirements for further cooperation, which has changed from time to time, I think that Vietnam and other countries, we also have to think about the most demanding issues that are arising in our social life.” Binh said.
The two ambassadors’ remarks underscored complementary approaches to ASEAN’s climate challenge: strengthening countries’ ability to withstand climate impacts while expanding regional cooperation on the transition to cleaner energy.
Closing the adaptation financing gap
See acknowledged that financing climate adaptation remains particularly difficult because its economic returns are often less visible than those of conventional investments.
“Adaptation especially is difficult because the return on investment is not that apparent when you are trying to avert a future loss or protecting an asset from future damage,” the ambassador fo Singapore said.
Still, she pointed to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s launch of the world’s first resilience bond as evidence that investors are willing to finance credible climate-resilience projects.
“I think it proves a point that there is investor interest and they are looking for good projects or good deals if you wish to use that term. And I think those deals can be uncovered in Southeast Asia where there will be much need for adaptation and therefore financing can bridge that gap.”
See and Binh spoke at the climate security forum on strengthening ASEAN regional cooperation in addressing the climate-conflict nexus, with both emphasizing the importance of maintaining continuity while successive member states take turns leading the regional bloc.
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