Slow-onset climate hazards in Southeast Asia

The report argues that while social protection is frequently used to respond to sudden-onset disasters, its potential to address slow-onset hazards like sea-level rise is underutilised. It highlights that the gradual nature of these hazards provides a unique window for transformative structural changes to address root causes of vulnerability. The authors identify significant knowledge gaps regarding urban coastal contexts and the adaptive functions of social protection, proposing three research principles: integrating slow-onset risks into social protection, prioritising transformative potential, and adapting mechanisms to specific coastal contexts.

• Sea-level rise poses severe risks to over 100 million people in coastal Asia, leading to displacement, saltwater intrusion affecting agriculture and freshwater, coastal erosion, and threats to food security and human health.
• Social protection mechanisms are currently skewed toward responding to sudden-onset disasters, leaving a gap in the management of slow-onset events which have larger aggregated impacts but receive less research and action.
• Slow-onset hazards offer a unique opportunity for transformative social protection because their gradual manifestation allows time for structural changes that are impractical during sudden-onset events.
• There is a critical need for social protection in coastal cities of Southeast Asia, where half the population is currently urban and is expected to reach two-thirds by 2050, particularly through active labour market policies and social services for the informal economy.
• Common social protection tools like cash and asset transfers often fail to address the structural drivers of systemic poverty and may only provide short-term benefits or even lead to maladaptation over the long run.
• The report proposes three guiding principles for future research: integrating slow-onset hazards into social protection design, prioritising the transformative potential to address root causes of vulnerability, and adapting mechanisms to fit the specific compounding risks of coastal contexts.

APA

Anschell, N., & Tran, M. (2020). Slow-onset climate hazards in Southeast Asia. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/social-protection-coastal-se-asia.pdf

Chicago

Anschell, Nicole, and Minh Tran. Slow-onset climate hazards in Southeast Asia. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2020. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/social-protection-coastal-se-asia.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Anschell |first1=Nicole |last2=Tran |first2=Minh |title=Slow-onset climate hazards in Southeast Asia |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=December 2020 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/social-protection-coastal-se-asia.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{anschell2020slowonset, author = {Anschell, Nicole and Tran, Minh}, title = {{Slow-onset climate hazards in Southeast Asia}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2020}, month = dec, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/social-protection-coastal-se-asia.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }