Report of the NEAT Working Group Meeting on Climate Change
and East Asian Sustainable Development
Organized Online by NEAT China
18 June 2021
I

Overview

1. Climate change presents the single biggest threat to development, and its
widespread, unprecedented impacts disproportionately burden the poorest and mostvulnerable. Urgent action to combat climate change and minimize its disruptions is
integral to the successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. The
Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015, aims to strengthen the global response to the threatof climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2
degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
2. Strengthening the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate risks,through appropriate international cooperation, new technology innovations and anenhanced capacity building framework, is more important than ever. This is even moreurgent for East Asia since climate change is affecting every country in this region to agreater level. It is disrupting national economies and affecting lives.
3. Changing weather patterns, rising sea levels, and more extreme and frequent
weather events have posed huge threats to sustainable development in East Asia,
especially in the aspects of maintaining food security (SDG 2) and natural disasters
management (SDG 9&11), which are two key components of achieving the 2030
Sustainable Development Goals.
4. The trend of climate change, coupled with increase in extreme weather disasters,
may negatively affect East Asia’s food security and natural disaster management.
Recognizing the importance to strengthen collective response and regional cooperationin this regard, the on-line NEAT Working Group Meeting on Climate Change and East
Asian Sustainable Development was held on 18 June 2021 to provide a platform for
NEAT members to share knowledge and experience on climate change and sustainable
development, to conduct joint research on the status quo and future development in theareas related to climate, food security and disaster management particularly, and mostimportantly, to pool wisdom to promote East Asian cooperation on climate-induced
food security and natural disaster management under this context.
5.

The list of NEAT participants is at Annex.

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IICountries Perspectives

6. Brunei has dealt with climate change regionally and in international politics withaspects of reducing carbon emissions, clean energy, disaster and environmental
management and its commitments to its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC)
under the Paris Agreement. The commitment combines energy sector, land transport
sector, forest sector to achieve a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 20% relative
to Business-As-Usual levels by 2030. As for the synergies between Climate
Governance and SDGs, Brunei will be firmly committed to have more effective
management & coordination, greater knowledge expertise, adequate public outreachand more education and training for relevant stakeholders. There remains much to bedone for Brunei to maintain food security and realize disaster management underclimate emergency, which includes preparation for worst-case scenarios, fast decision
making process, relevant organization to handle climate emergency situation, better IT
network infrastructure and more involvement with regional cooperation on foodsecurity and natural disaster management.
7. China has officially announced that it aimed to reach a carbon peak by 2030 andbe carbon neutral by 2060. This is a major strategic decision made by China based on
its responsibility to build a community with a shared future and its inherent requirement
to achieve sustainable development. China has incorporated carbon and carbon
neutrality into its overall plan for ecological progress. China is firmly committed tomultilateralism, working for the establishment of a global environmental governancesystem featuring fairness, rationality and win-win cooperation, and actively responding
to food security and natural disasters caused by climate change. China has also madegreen cooperation a key part of the Belt and Road Initiative. China has launched a seriesof green action initiatives, including green infrastructure, green energy, green
transportation and green finance, in order to work with APT countries to address therisks of climate change.
8. Cambodia is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change such as floods,
droughts, windstorms and so on, which have posed great threats to its agriculture,
infrastructures, forestry and human health. According to the assessment, Cambodia’s
temperature would increase up to 1.35-2.5 degrees Celsius in 2100 and annual rainfall
would increase between 3 and 35% from current condition. Rice is the main food cropin Cambodia and the losses in production of rice have been mainly due to floods anddroughts during the past 20 years. A study shows that under future climate conditions,most of Cambodia’s agricultural areas will be exposed to higher risks of droughts andrice yields is expected to fall by up to 70% of current levels until 2080. In order to deal
with those impacts, Cambodia has taken some adaptation actions for agriculture interms of production increase, quality-safety improvement, support services andcapacity building enhancement, scientific research and technologies innovation and soon.
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9. Indonesia is among top 5 greenhouse gas emitters and its climate change is
expected to lead to both a longer dry season and a shorter but more intense wet season.
Further natural and man-made disasters in this country such as extreme wet or dry
seasons, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and man-made forest fires
have frequently occurred in recent years. Climate changes has severe impacts on
Indonesia’s food security. These include temperature increase, which will increasingly
limit general crop productivity, leading to estimated food deficits of 90 million tons ofhusked rice by 2050. Indonesia’s commitment for the Paris Agreement states that it will:
unconditionally reduce emissions to 26% below business as usual by 2020 and 29% by2030; achieve 41% emissions reductions by 2030 with international technology transfer,
capacity building and financial support. Meanwhile, Indonesia will further implement
the Indonesia Climate Resilience Strategy and will get 23% of its electricity fromrenewable sources by 2050. Four presidential directives in were issued on 16 April 2021
to improve disaster management in Indonesia, attaching much importance on themonitoring the implementation of existing regulations, integration between upstream
and downstream, engagement of all related stakeholders and improvement of theeducation regarding disasters.
10. Japan has described how several climate change phenomena, such as extreme
weather, higher temperature and rising sea level, impact on the availability, access anduse of food. Mitigation measures may also result in negative consequences, such as
higher input price, land use restriction and eventually higher food price. Attention mustbe paid to the time-scale and magnitude of the impacts. Problems can be dealt withvarious adaptation measures including technology development, robust supply chain
and social safety net. In addition, mitigation policies must be carefully designed foravoiding possible negative impacts on food security. Common characteristics of foodsecurity in the ATP region include the dependence on food import from outside of theregion, high population density, small scale intensive farming and resource constraints.
Climate change will amplify the scope and magnitude of food security issues mentioned
above. Therefore, measures must be taken to cope with those, among which common
food policy, or at least policy coordination, is meaningful for designing a resilient andsustainable food system for East Asia.
11. Republic of Korea points out that similar to COVID-19 pandemic, climate change
has posed severe challenges to food security on regional, national and also people’slevels. Now it’s time for Asian countries to take joint actions under the principle of“Common But Regional Responsibilities”. With implementing Moon’s Green New
Deal Policy for a more balanced national development, ROK has committed to realize
Carbon Neutral by 2050. As for the future regional reaction to food security against the
backdrop of climate change, on one hand, common declaration, research cooperation
on carbon neutrality, long-term cooperation with international organizations and states,
implementation of funding programmes and promotion of cooperation between
governments and private sectors are needed. On the other hand, several actions should3

be taken on national level such as expediting movements of key agri-food inputs,
products and people, taking preemptive steps to reduce food-borne illnesses in agrifood value chains, expediting visa protocols for migrant workers in agri-food value
chains, facilitating movements to digital tools and identifying vulnerabilities in foodsupply chains. Besides, as far as people is concerned, Asian governments should pay
more attention to expediting subsidies to farming households, expanding safety nets toincorporate migrants and food workers, including women in food security policies andimproving coverage, reliability of agri-food and nutrition data as well.
12. Lao PDR recognizes climate change has become a real threat to food security invarious ways, not only in this region, but also beyond East Asia. In addition, things canbe worsened due to the fast growth of population. It is therefore challenging for thecountries to increase food production capacity to keep up with of the growing demand
for food. Moreover, countries in the region are in the process of industrialization andurbanization with more people abandoning agricultural activities. To safeguard andpromote regional food security in the context of climate change, political commitments
and collective efforts are needed. Energy transition from fossil fuel to clean energy is amust for all. Gigantic amount of money is needed to invest in green development,
including renewable energy industry. It is essential that technologies, expertise andfinancial assistance are transformed from the more developed to the least developed
nations. The rate of deforestation must be decreased while the forest areas should be
increased. Food production system should be transformed and adapted to climatechange by taking actions in the areas of application of science and technologies, joint
research in agricultural sector, sharing of best practices, establishment of early warning
systems and so on.
13. Malaysia realizes that climate change factors and low land use for food crops havepresented big threats to food security in Malaysia. Due to climate-induced Dry Spell ,major rice granary areas in Malaysia may face significant rice yields reductions in the
periods of 2030-2050. Meanwhile, heavy rain and floods will also cause chronic
physical risks and huge burden to many areas and most relief centers in Malaysia.
Besides, sea level rise may lead to lots of hidden troubles like groundwater security,
coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion and so on. It is an agreement that food sector cancontribute to combating climate change by reducing emissions from agriculture. In
order to deal with climate change and secure food security, climate resilient agriculture
should be greatly pursued and practiced. In terms of mitigation to retain the carbon sink,forest cannot be converted for agriculture. Therefore, circular economy andagroforestry in forest restoration should also be followed.

14. Aside from having consistently high rankings in the Global Climate Risk Index, thePhilippines also has among the highest food insecure people in the Southeast AsianRegion from 2017 to 2019 with 59 million Filipinos categorized as having moderate to4

severe lack of consistent access to food. Moderately food insecure Filipinos rose from44.9 million recorded in 2014-2016. At least 18.8 million Filipinos experienced severe
food insecurity or went hungry for days in 2016, an increase from 12.4 million in 2014 .
Recognizing the widespread impacts of climate change, the Philippines had passed andimplemented landmark legislations on Climate Change(CC) and Disaster Risk
Reduction Management(DRRM) in 2009 and 2010, respectively. As far as the ways
forward are concerned, several measures have been highlighted such as harmonizationof CC and DRRM policy, capacitating local government units, aligning development
planning at national and subnational levels, rationalizing investment programming,
strengthening food production and supply chain systems and establishing East Asian
cooperation platform for CC and DRRM.
15. Singapore finds that climate change will continue to exert significant pressure on
East Asia’s already precarious state of food security. The extent of predicted impacts
highly depends on the categories and geographical locations of the crops, the range ofyearly temperature and precipitation change, variations in extreme weathers, the CO2
fertilization effect assumption and adaptation abilities. Instead of a long-term decline
in average grain yields induced by climate change, the short-term scenario is likely to
be more fluctuation in grain output caused by more short-term weather changes which
carries serious economic and social implications. Effects of climate change has led tomany threats to East Asian countries’ agriculture like China, Japan, ROK. In an effort
to cope with food security challenge in the context of global warming, East Asia will
have to rely on self-sufficiency policies, domestic adaptation measures as well as
increase of food imports and overseas agricultural investment.
16. Agriculture plays a crucial role in Thailand with about 8.1 million households(mainly smallholders) accounting for 34.1% of domestic labor force and contribute 9.1%of total GDP. It is expected to adversely affected by climate change because most offarms are smallholders with low level of education and less access to irrigation system.
For example, climate change is projected to decrease the production of rice, sugarcaneand cassava by 10.18-13.33%, 24.94-34.93% and 14.74-21.26%, respectively.
Historical data also revealed that the climate-induced vulnerability of food security in
Thailand has been escalated overtime. Therefore, the government should further raise
the awareness to farmers in the affected area in order to change their behavior or adapt
to the world of changing climate. Thailand should also invest in expanding irrigation
areas and promote efficient use of water. Meanwhile, it is important to offer small
farmers in accessing to modern technology and innovation plus providing them withknowledge of risk management. Besides, Thailand shall promote mitigation andadaptation practices such as alternative wet and dry for rice production and conditionalcash transfer should be simultaneously applied to farmers to incentivize the adoption ofthese practices.
17. Vietnam recognizes that climate change is one of the most significant challenges
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to achieving food security in East Asia. Vietnam is one of the most heavily affected by
the risk of sea level rise stemmed from climate changes. With about 45 million people
living in “low elevation coastal zones”, 55% of Vietnam’s population is vulnerable tosea level rise. It ranks second in terms of climate impact on land cultivated area andagriculture. In response to climate crisis, the government should pay proper attention
to the root causes and focus on observable symptoms after the fact. Meanwhile,
Vietnam should elaborately examine change of land use pattern. The waste water withimproper treatment discharged from sites of industrial production into the rivers andthe sea must be well supervised and controlled in all countries of the region. The
challenge of climate change and climate disasters in East Asia is real and urgent, whichcalls for a common agenda and forged consensus on some policy goals for sustainable
food security and development in the region. Joint efforts in circular economy,
databases, financial support and crop productivity growth with technologicaladvancements should be push forward accordingly.
III

Major Concerns

18. The following two issues are raised during the session of free discussion:
19. The balance between food productivity and sustainability. With regards to therelation between food security and forest conservation, it is shared by all that these twothings are really hard to reconcile, just like two sides of one coin. The key may lie inincreasing both productivity and sustainability through using plantation in a moresustainable way. From the perspectives of Indonesia and Philippines, government’s
strong stance plus pricing policy and close attention to people’s welfare with strict
policy implementation are needed respectively.
20. Ways to meet increasing food and arable land need. Further question to the one
above, how to deal with the ever rising demand for food and arable land attracts muchinterest and attention from all participants. Japan provides several ideas on this which
are thought to be necessary and important by the meeting. They include increasing land
productivity, introducing shorter yielding period, rotating agriculture, reducing
chemical inputs and spreading cutting-edge technologies.
IV

Policy Recommendations

21. The participants to the NEAT Working Group Meeting noted that climate change
has exacerbated the risks of food insecurity and natural disasters across East Asia. It isessential for APT countries to enhance regional cooperation to cope with the common
threat under the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Agenda. In
order to avoid risks of food insecurity and natural disasters in this region, the Working
Group on “Climate Change and East Asian Sustainable Development” puts forward
policy recommendations based on all the presentations and discussions at the Meeting6

as follows:(a) Further institutionalize APT cooperation on food security and disastermanagement in the context of climate change.
••

Formulate an action plan for APT food security cooperation on climatechange mitigation and adaptation. Serving as a common holistic agenda andforged consensus to strengthen East Asian food security under circumstancesof climate change, the plan should identify specific goals, road map, priority
areas, timetables and implementing measures for APT food security
cooperation on climate change mitigation and adaptation for the 2022-2030
period with the aim of transforming the regional food system into a more
inclusive, resilient and sustainable one.
Jointly pursue institutionalized policy coordination, especially push theestablishment of APT disaster management ministers meeting mechanism,
which shall be held once a year as the major mechanism for harmonizing policy
coordination and decision-making in harmonizing climate change and disastermanagement. To facilitate the Meeting, supporting mechanisms should also be
set up accordingly.

(b) Enhance financial support and financing models innovation.
•••

Strengthen strong and multi-channel financial support from both ODA(Official Development Assistance, ODA) and private and domestic
resources in such cooperation areas as carbon neutrality, circular economy,
renewable and green technology innovation, agricultural infrastructures
construction, Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) , and disaster management, etc.
Explore to establish an APT Climate-Smart Agriculture Development
Fund. Besides making use of the APT Cooperation Fund, the Climate-Smart
Agriculture Development Fund can be established and used for regional
cooperation projects in related areas.
Push ahead collaboration and cooperation with international institutions,for instance, the FAO, WB, IMF, ADB and AIIB.

(c) Advance development partnership in APT cooperation on food security anddisaster management cooperation.
••

Promote broad participation of all relevant stakeholders, such as public andprivate sectors, civil society, and non-governmental organizations in regional
food security and disaster reduction and development projects. Small farmers,
women and migrant workers, in particular, should be further incorporated andfacilitated into the whole process.
Create an APT Forum for Climate Change and Sustainable
Development to bring all parties concerned together annually to share and7•

showcase experience and best practices and pull wisdom on further promoting
regional cooperation in well combining and balancing food productivity andsustainability against the backdrop of climate change.
Reinforce regional existing emergency response and management
cooperative mechanisms, among which AFSIS and APTERR are of greatsignificance in terms of updated information sharing, early-warning systembuilding and food crisis prevention and management caused by agrometeorological disasters.

(d) Promote capacity-building through education, training, joint research andpilot projects.
•

Foster regional cooperation on education, training and joint research
especially in enhancing productivity, conserving crop variety and developing
new crop varieties, using land and water, fostering Climate-Smart Farming anddisaster management. Such training, education programs and joint researchshould be regularized, well organized and guaranteed by regional cooperation
fund. In this regard, advanced economies in this region shall provide moreassistance for the less developed ones.

•

Implement village-level pilot or demonstration projects. Village-level pilot
or demonstration projects, those on CSA in particular, should be developed andsupported by regional countries to help a large number of our people raiseawareness and capacity to take concrete and steady actions on climate
mitigation and adaptation in the whole process of agricultural system.

Conclusion
As a serious and irreversible global threat from which no countries can stand aside,climate change is one of the biggest threat factors to the sustainable development of theworld and East Asia today, especially the serious challenges to food security anddisaster management. At this critical juncture, it is pressing for East Asian countries tofurther consolidate political will, increase investment, and make integrated efforts tobuild a region oriented toward prosperity, good governance and sustainable
development, making its great contribution to the global cause of combating climatechange and realizing SDGs.

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Appendix: List of Participants of the NEAT Working Group Meeting on Climate
Change and East Asian Sustainable Development
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

BRUNEI
Saiful Azmi Husain
Senior Assistant Professor, Faculty of Science Universiti Brunei Darussalam
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INDONESIA
Budi Haryanto
Professor, Faculty of Public Health, Universitas Indonesia
JAPAN
Koyama Osamu
President, Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences
REPUBLIC OF KOREA
Kun Sik Hong
Research Fellow, Institute for National Security Strategy
LAO PDR
Bounphieng Pheuaphetlangsy
Deputy Director, Strategic and International Studies Division of Institute of Foreign
Affairs
MALAYSIAHenry Chan
Conservation Director of WWF, Malaysia
PHILIPPINES
Sonny N. Domingo
Senior Research Fellow, Philippine Institute for Development Studies
Jean Clarisse T. Carlos
NEAT Philippines Alternate Focal Person
Project Evaluation Officer III
Philippine APEC Study Center Network
Philippine Institute for Development
SINGAPORE
Chen Gang
Senior Research Fellow, East Asian Institute
THAILAND
Witsanu Attavanich
Associate professor, Faculty of Economics
Kasetsart University, Thailand
VIETNAM
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Tuan Nguyen Anh
Deputy Director General, Institute of Foreign and Strategic Studies
Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam
CHINA
Cui Haining
Deputy Director, Institute of Asian Studies,
China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU)
Han Zhili
Director, Asia-Pacific Studies Center, CFAU
Miao Ji
Associate Professor, Institute of Asian Studies, CFAU
Dong Liang
Research Fellow, Institute of Asian Studies, CFAU
Li Fujian
Research Fellow, Institute of Asian Studies, CFAU
Wang Sidan
Assistant Professor, Institute of International Relations, CFAU
Li Tianhui
Research Fellow, Institute of International Relations, CFAU
Zhang Yingjin
Research Assistant, Institute of International Relations, CFAU

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