The future in Asia and the Pacific

The document outlines discussions from a foresight workshop involving 42 academics and practitioners from 15 countries in Asia and the Pacific. It identifies key drivers of change—specifically artificial intelligence, cultural values, and economic power relations—and their potential impacts on the environment and society. The briefing recommends transforming economic systems away from GDP-centric models, enhancing governance through AI ethics and transboundary cooperation, and centering rights and justice to protect marginalized groups and the environment.

• Artificial intelligence (AI) and big data offer opportunities to improve natural resource management, food security, and the development of green, smart cities, but they also pose risks of widening inequality through technology monopolization and job losses.
• The environmental costs of AI are currently insufficiently understood, necessitating more transparency regarding its energy intensity requirements.
• There is a critical need to preserve and revive traditional ecological and Indigenous knowledge to address biodiversity loss and climate change, as these are threatened by rapid technological advancement.
• Future economic scenarios in the region could see carbon markets primarily benefiting affluent countries and corporations, or the business case for climate action replacing government-led processes to drive new resource extraction.
• To transform the economy, the document suggests moving beyond GDP as the primary measure of economic health in favor of non-economic indicators such as happiness indices and ecological footprints.
• Effective environmental governance requires enhanced transboundary cooperation to manage climate risks, specifically citing the need to strengthen institutions like the Mekong River Commission.
• The briefing argues for the legal recognition of the rights of nature and the protection of environmental defenders to ensure that sustainability progress does not marginalize vulnerable groups.

APA

Tran, M., & Lee, H. (2024). The future in Asia and the Pacific. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/163615/the-future-in-asia-and-the-pacific.pdf

Chicago

Tran, Minh, and Haeun Lee. The future in Asia and the Pacific. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2024. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/163615/the-future-in-asia-and-the-pacific.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Tran |first1=Minh |last2=Lee |first2=Haeun |title=The future in Asia and the Pacific |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=March 2024 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/163615/the-future-in-asia-and-the-pacific.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{tran2024future, author = {Tran, Minh and Lee, Haeun}, title = {{The future in Asia and the Pacific}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2024}, month = mar, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/163615/the-future-in-asia-and-the-pacific.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }