Liputan6.com, Jakarta – Indonesia will hold the 43rd ASEAN 2023 Summit on September 5-7, 2023. One of the results of the agreement that the community is waiting for from this ASEAN Summit is the efforts of ASEAN leaders in responding to the impact of climate change.

Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia researcher Mouna Wasef explained that the Southeast Asian region is more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Geographically, for example, most of the population is in coastal areas and islands, at risk of rising sea levels.

The intensity of floods, typhoons, and disasters caused by extreme weather in the region has also tended to increase in recent years.

Mouna said ASEAN is at the forefront of climate risk. Using a scenario of average global temperatures increasing by 2.3 degrees Celsius by 2050, 600 million Asians could be hit by annual heat waves, 75 percent of potential economic losses from yearly flooding, and three or four times more extreme rainfall in Asia, including the ASEAN region.

“ASEAN as a region could lose 37.4 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2048 if climate change mitigation and energy transition are not carried out,” he said in a written statement Sunday (27/8/2023).

Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand will lose economic output totaling more than seven times their GDP by 2050.

“With Indonesia’s GDP currently reaching Rp 21,000 trillion, Indonesia has the potential to lose Rp 147,000 trillion if it does not mitigate climate change,” Mouna added.

The public’s high hopes and expectations of the outcome of the 43rd ASEAN Summit 2023 in responding to climate change issues must be accompanied by concrete deliverables and increased commitment to their implementation.

“Admittedly, there is still a lot of pessimism towards implementing ASEAN leaders’ commitments due to the ‘principle of non-interference and respect for national sovereignty as inhibiting factors. In addition, the absence of an accountability mechanism for commitment documents is also a hindering factor.” Mouna explained.

Source: Liputan6.com