The Trumpian approach to critical minerals – evident from the United States' interactions with Ukraine – may force Southeast Asia to choose sides. The region needs to look at diversifying its technical partners in the energy sector.
The financing gap is huge, but time is short. Given the inadequacy of a promised new climate finance goal, Southeast Asia should look beyond UN-led conferences to crowd in other sources of capital to tackle the climate crisis.
In Asia, industry experts have noted that there is an urgent need for the region to accelerate sustainable financing efforts to achieve net zero emission targets.