The 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) was, by many accounts, a disappointment. Not only did it fail to reach agreement on the continued issue of fossil fuels, but it also failed to deliver and commit to the climate finance needed to achieve net zero.
The agri-food industry, one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, will remain under pressure if regional blocs such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations fail to take action.
The agri-food sector, which contributes one-third of greenhouse gas emissions, requires urgent action. Southeast Asia’s agri-food systems contributed 5.2 percent of global emissions in 2021. If this sector is not controlled globally, achieving global or national climate targets will be difficult or impossible, even if all fossil fuel burning were stopped today.
With global leadership lagging, as we saw at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29), it is time for regional blocs to lead the urgent actions needed to achieve climate goals. Southeast Asia in particular is at the forefront of climate change and we cannot afford not to. Climate deterioration is already wreaking havoc on the region. For example, the Philippines experienced an unprecedented six hurricanes in one month.
ASEAN is not a small bloc. Its population is 670 million people, larger than the population of the European Union, which is 450 million people. More importantly, ASEAN is on track to become the fourth largest economic bloc in the world by 2030, and any positive impact will therefore have repercussions in other regions.
Leveraging climate finance is key to achieving ASEAN’s goals. Yet, according to the Global Partnership for the Future of Food, food systems are only receiving 2.5 percent of global public climate finance. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Southeast Asia has historically been the… receiving country. Only 5 percent of climate finance goes to Asia. Food and agriculture receive only a small share of total financing (see Figure 1).
Food and agriculture get a small slice of the pie. Figure 1: Distribution of climate finance in Southeast Asia, 2018–2019 (USD billion)Source: Asian Development Bank Note: AFOLU refers to agriculture, forestry and other land use.
Funding is likely to remain limited in light of significant global competition in a tepid investment environment. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that $1 trillion is needed annually until 2030 to meet net-zero emissions targets. However, in 2022, the sector received only $29 billion.
According to another report, there is a 45 percent funding gap for small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises in Southeast Asia annually. Private sector funding tends to focus on technological fixes rather than ecosystem-level improvements.
At Singapore International Agri-Food Week held in mid-November 2024, a common complaint in the side discussions was the decline in deal flow compared to previous years. Globally, funding for agri-food tech startups in 2023 was down 49.2 percent compared to 2022, with Asia being hit the hardest.
Another source of disappointment is that the follow-up to COP 28 did not involve using existing climate finance rather than finding new sources.
Asian Development Bank report Asia-Pacific Climate Finance Overview has identified that Southeast Asia’s main barriers to accessing climate finance are weak policies and enabling environment for climate action, as well as weak institutional and planning frameworks supporting a range of high-quality, bankable climate finance projects.
The Asian Development Bank recommended greater transparency, data availability, monitoring and reporting. One of the key steps to address this issue is to integrate climate plans into sectoral plans, including those for agriculture and food.
This is where ASEAN’s leadership is important. Under Malaysia’s chairmanship in 2025, ASEAN will do just that: Promote trade and investment, create inclusive and sustainable pathways, foster integrated and connected economies, and develop a digitally resilient ASEAN.
In this regard, Malaysia has prioritized the ASEAN Agricultural Vision: Towards 2045 as one of its priority economic outcomes and is embarking on developing a new five-year action plan (2026 to 2030) on food agriculture and forestry.
It may be prudent to point Southeast Asian agriculture ministers to a short list of high-impact projects and provide them with guidance and tools to develop their investment readiness and bankability. For example, ASEAN countries could focus on low-carbon rice.
The mitigation potential for rice (48 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent or MtCO2e per year) is much higher than for livestock (9.4 MtCO2e) and cropland (0.8 MtCO2e). Rice accounts for 36 percent of all emissions, compared to 9 percent for livestock and 3 percent for cropland. Vietnam is the only country that has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from rice by 1 million hectares by 2030 as part of its Nationally Determined Contributions.
By providing them, ASEAN can connect member states to climate finance, including those established at previous COPs. For example, it could benefit from the Green Climate Fund (established at COP16) or the Agricultural Innovation Mission for Climate (established at COP28). The latter has increased its funding for climate-smart agriculture to US$29.2 billion from the US$17 billion announced last year.
This year, the Conference of the Parties launched the Counterpart Funding Initiative: Paco Harmonia Climate Initiative for Farmers. It serves as a platform bringing together more than 90 networks and associations to help farmers devise climate action initiatives in the agri-food system.
By focusing on rural communities and women, it is relevant to Southeast Asia’s 100 million smallholder farmers. ASEAN can also leverage these options to fund research and development, weather forecasting, technological solutions and infrastructure improvement to build a sustainable and resilient agri-food system.
Malaysia plans to introduce an ASEAN Joint Declaration on Climate Change at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), to be held in Belém, Brazil, at the mouth of the Amazon River. The conference is likely to highlight the pressures of agricultural expansion in the Amazon rainforest.
This challenge is similar to that facing Southeast Asia. As the next president, Malaysia could also strengthen climate cooperation between the bloc ahead of COP30 to minimise any expected shortcomings at the meeting. This will be an opportune moment to highlight ASEAN’s strong commitment to food, agriculture and forestry and attract much-needed financing to address the pressing climate challenges facing the region.
Elisa Cor Loder is a Visiting Fellow at the Southeast Asia Climate Change Programme, ISEAS – Yusuf Ishak Institute.
Paul Teng is a visiting senior fellow at the Southeast Asia Climate Change Programme at the ISEAS-Yusuf Ishak Institute. He is also Dean and Director General of NIE International, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
This article was first published on Fulcrum, ISEAS: the blog site of the Yusuf Ishak Institute.
