Closing the Adaptation Gap: Strategies for Climate Resilience in the Agriculture and Water Sectors of the Greater Mekong Subregion

The document identifies heatwaves, flooding, droughts, and tropical cyclones as primary threats to agriculture and water in the Greater Mekong Subregion, leading to crop failure and infrastructure damage. While National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) exist in various stages across the region, implementation is hindered by institutional fragmentation, knowledge gaps, and a lack of consistent financing. The brief recommends strengthening policy integration, improving knowledge dissemination, and diversifying financial instruments—including grants and inclusive insurance—to support vulnerable communities.

• Climate hazards including heatwaves, wet-season flooding, dry-season droughts, and tropical cyclones are severely impacting the Greater Mekong Subregion's agriculture and water sectors, causing irrigation failure, soil degradation, and threatening food security.
• National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) in the region are at inconsistent stages of development: Cambodia has submitted a NAP, China adopted a National Strategy on Climate Adaptation 2035, while Lao PDR, Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar are in various stages of preparation or lack a formal multi-sectoral process.
• Specific regional climate risks include extreme heat in Cambodia and Lao PDR, high flooding risks in Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar, and significant drought risks that could reduce rainfed rice yields in Thailand by 10% by 2080 under the RCP 8.5 scenario.
• Adaptation priorities for the region focus on four main areas: water management and conservation, climate-resilient farming (such as the 'three reductions for three gains' strategy in Vietnam), disaster preparedness, and ecosystem-based adaptation.
• Implementation of adaptation strategies is obstructed by institutional fragmentation, a reliance on short-term official development assistance, and a lack of gender-sensitive approaches for vulnerable groups.
• There is a critical gap in adaptation finance, with a global trend of climate finance being dominated by debt (61% in 2020) rather than grants (6%), which increases the debt burden on developing nations.
• Agricultural insurance is underutilized in the region and is largely ineffective for slow-onset disasters like droughts, which account for 60% of average annual losses in Southeast Asia.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (n.d.). Closing the Adaptation Gap: Strategies for Climate Resilience in the Agriculture and Water Sectors of the Greater Mekong Subregion. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/attachment-2-1-ccesp-policy-study-climate-hazards-impacting-the-water-and-agriculture-sectors-in-the-gms.pdf

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Closing the Adaptation Gap: Strategies for Climate Resilience in the Agriculture and Water Sectors of the Greater Mekong Subregion. n.d. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/attachment-2-1-ccesp-policy-study-climate-hazards-impacting-the-water-and-agriculture-sectors-in-the-gms.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Closing the Adaptation Gap: Strategies for Climate Resilience in the Agriculture and Water Sectors of the Greater Mekong Subregion |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/attachment-2-1-ccesp-policy-study-climate-hazards-impacting-the-water-and-agriculture-sectors-in-the-gms.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitutendclosing, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Closing the Adaptation Gap: Strategies for Climate Resilience in the Agriculture and Water Sectors of the Greater Mekong Subregion}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/attachment-2-1-ccesp-policy-study-climate-hazards-impacting-the-water-and-agriculture-sectors-in-the-gms.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }