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The ASEAN sustainable debt market experienced rapid growth in 2021, with GSS debt issuance reaching USD 24 billion and sustainability-linked instruments reaching USD 27.5 billion. Singapore remains the regional leader, while the green theme continues to be the most popular. The report highlights the emergence of the ASEAN Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance and the growth of local currency issuances, particularly in Singapore and Thailand.

The ASEAN+3 sustainable debt market reached USD 449 billion by Q3 2021, driven largely by the People's Republic of China, Japan, and Hong Kong, China. While green bonds remain dominant, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the issuance of social and sustainability-labeled instruments. Local currency (LCY) issuance represents 64% of the region's total sustainable debt, though this is unevenly distributed; Thailand has the highest LCY share at 98.5%, while Viet Nam and Indonesia rely heavily on foreign currencies. The report identifies barriers such as lack of market awareness, high transaction costs for small deals, and a shortage of bankable green projects. It recommends increasing sovereign GSS bond issuance, expanding the investor base through ETFs and indices, and establishing centralized sustainable finance platforms to improve project visibility.

The report defines financial aggregation as the use of instruments to combine multiple investments, projects, or participants to scale urban climate finance. It identifies key barriers to city-level investment, such as poor municipal creditworthiness and high upfront costs, and proposes supply-side aggregation (combining investor commitments) and demand-side aggregation (pooling project needs) as solutions. The document provides case studies from Africa, Asia, and South America, and emphasizes that these tools require a supportive 'enabling environment' characterized by fiscal autonomy and technical capacity.

The paper argues that COVID-19 recovery should move beyond short-term stimulus to 'structural reforms' that are systemic, long-lasting, and general purpose. It introduces a 'Green Structural Recovery Menu' featuring ten high-level measures, including green fiscal reform and natural capital investment. The authors provide a toolkit of prioritisation criteria—categorised as conventional, advanced, and systemic/political—to help governments align policies with specific goals like job creation or planetary boundaries. The report identifies significant gaps in current agendas, particularly regarding gender integration, nature-based solutions, and support for MSMEs. It also addresses the financing challenge for the global south, suggesting debt-for-nature swaps and blended finance. Case studies from countries such as South Korea, Indonesia, and Pakistan illustrate the practical challenges and mixed results of implementing these reforms.

This briefing by the Center for International Environmental Law provides a roadmap and initial reflections on the May 6, 2022, final report issued by the Philippines Commission on Human Rights (CHR) following a seven-year National Inquiry on Climate Change.

The Philippines Commission on Human Rights (CHR) concluded a seven-year inquiry finding that 47 'Carbon Majors' companies contributed significantly to global emissions and engaged in 'willful obfuscation' of climate science despite knowing the risks since at least 1965. The report details severe human rights impacts in the Philippines, including threats to the rights to life, health, food security, and water, disproportionately affecting vulnerable groups such as women, children, and Indigenous Peoples. The CHR asserts that these companies, and the financial institutions that fund them, have a responsibility to respect human rights and provide remediation for climate-driven harms. It recommends that states implement punitive laws for environmental harm, put a price on pollution, and transition to renewable energy by 2030 to meet the 1.5°C limit.

The document argues that disarmament negotiations are highly masculinized, leading to the routine exclusion of women despite their roles as combatants or leaders of anti-weapon campaigns. It identifies three primary barriers to inclusion: conceptual beliefs that women are irrelevant to war issues, technical portrayals of women as lacking military expertise, and political barriers related to the lack of women in leadership. Using case studies from five countries, the brief demonstrates a continuum of inclusion from total exclusion (Nepal, South Sudan, Sri Lanka) to meaningful inclusion (Philippines, Colombia). It recommends that third parties push for compulsory quotas and capacity-building to ensure diverse, horizontal, and vertical inclusion of women in all stages of peace processes.

The report identifies a pervasive 'elite–citizen gap' in confidence toward international organizations, where elites consistently express higher levels of trust than ordinary citizens. Based on survey data from Brazil, Germany, the Philippines, Russia, and the US, the study finds that this gap is most pronounced for sustainable development organizations like the UN and is often underestimated by elites. The authors argue that legitimacy is driven by both organizational performance and democratic procedure, and they recommend that the UN increase awareness of this gap, communicate more effectively on its performance and procedures, and strategically engage with young people to bolster global governance.

The document examines the link between resource-intensive lifestyles of the global rich and environmental degradation, noting that the world has been in 'global ecological overshoot' since 1970. It identifies housing, transport, and food as the primary drivers of lifestyle emissions and proposes a multi-pronged policy approach to shift societal norms. The authors emphasize that a 'just transition' is necessary to avoid marginalizing local communities and to prevent 'neo-consumerism' where green products simply replace unsustainable ones without reducing overall consumption.

The document outlines a comprehensive methodology for developing Basin Health Report Cards (BRCs), emphasizing the need for a holistic approach that integrates ecological, social, economic, and governance metrics. It categorizes indicators into six major areas—Water Quality and Quantity, Landscapes and Ecology, Management and Governance, Economy, Social and Cultural, and Health and Nutrition—and distinguishes between prescriptive and adaptive, as well as leading and lagging indicators. The guide details a four-step selection process involving stakeholder values, data scrutiny, threshold setting, and final aggregation. It also highlights emerging innovations, such as the integration of gender perspectives, Indigenous knowledge, and Environmental Justice Indices, to ensure more inclusive and equitable water resource management.

The document discusses the relationship between corporate responsibility, human rights, and climate change, specifically focusing on how the Philippines' National Inquiry on Climate Change provides a model for understanding these synergies within the ASEAN context.

The report analyzes the vulnerability of ASEAN economies to climate transition risks, highlighting a significant reliance on fossil fuels for electricity generation. It finds that carbon-intensive sectors represent approximately 25% of corporate bond issuance in the region, with a substantial portion of loans and bonds facing refinancing risks by 2030. The authors argue that current industrial classification systems are inadequate for identifying these risks and recommend that ASEAN central banks develop comprehensive 'green' and 'brown' taxonomies to enhance climate risk disclosures and manage potential asset stranding.

The report examines the security implications of climate change in the South and East China Seas, focusing on the interplay between regional political cohesion and food prices. It presents four scenarios—ranging from high cooperation and low prices to high fragmentation and food insecurity—to illustrate potential risks, including social unrest, the failure of governance, and increased Chinese maritime aggression. The analysis emphasizes that climate change acts as a threat multiplier, exacerbating existing geopolitical tensions and socio-economic inequalities in Southeast and East Asia.

The global coal fleet grew by 18.2 GW in 2021, primarily driven by China, which commissioned 25.2 GW of new capacity. While COP26 led to an increase in the number of plants with phase-out dates to 750 (550 GW), a significant gap remains to meet the 1.5C pathway, which would require retiring an additional 1,100 GW. Public financing for new international coal projects has largely ceased following pledges from G20 countries, including China, Japan, and South Korea. However, some nations continue to rely on unproven 'clean coal' technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS) to extend plant lifetimes.

The report details a global landscape where coal capacity is increasingly concentrated in China, while other regions face a decline in new projects. Despite a record number of phase-out announcements following COP26, the global fleet grew by 18.2 GW in 2021, primarily due to Chinese expansion. The document argues that 'clean coal' technologies are costly and ineffective distractions from the necessary total phase-out of coal power.

The report finds that while many countries are committing to end coal power, global capacity increased by 18.2 GW in 2021, driven primarily by China. While OECD countries and several non-OECD nations are cancelling projects, China's continued expansion and the use of unproven 'clean coal' technologies in some developed nations hinder alignment with the 1.5°C Paris Agreement target.

The authors argue that the seizure of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and threats to the Chernobyl site demonstrate the extreme dangers of nuclear facilities in conflict zones. They suggest the United States must develop a strategy to provide alternatives to Russian nuclear exports, monitor how these events affect global public perception of nuclear energy's role in climate mitigation, and adopt a more holistic approach to risk assessment that incorporates extreme climate projections and converging security threats.

The document analyzes India's power sector financing between 2013 and 2019, noting that while utility-scale renewables dominate tracked commitments, continued investment in coal-fired power remains a significant barrier to Paris Agreement alignment. It highlights the risk of stranded assets in the thermal sector and recommends a shift toward green bonds, improved transmission infrastructure, and the accelerated decommissioning of old coal plants to meet 2030 climate targets.

The document analyzes power sector financing in Indonesia from 2015 to 2020, revealing a significant investment gap in renewables and a continued reliance on fossil fuels. While international finance for coal dropped sharply after 2018, domestic finance remains heavily skewed toward fossil fuels. To meet the 2060 Net Zero target, Indonesia requires USD 16.1 billion in annual renewable energy investment, far exceeding the tracked average of USD 2.7 billion. The report highlights solar energy as having the largest investment gap and suggests leveraging blended finance, green sukuks, and the Energy Transition Mechanism to accelerate the transition.

The document examines India's power sector financing between 2013 and 2019, noting that while utility-scale renewables dominate tracked commitments, continued investment in coal-fired power creates significant misalignment with Paris Agreement temperature goals. It highlights the risk of stranded assets in the thermal sector and proposes innovative financial mechanisms, such as green bonds and foreign exchange hedges, to accelerate the energy transition.