2020: Tough Year for Climate Change, Amid the Need for Climate Resiliency

Key Points

• Under the radar due to COVID-19 fanfare, the news about Indonesia’s disappearing islands, Singapore’s hottest year on record, and Myanmar’s climate migrations opened the first-quarter of 2020. COVID-19 might be the most pressing issue of 2020, but climate change has become a common threat to humanity for decades. Both would leave far-reaching consequences if left unattended. As the impact of climate change on social security in the ASEAN region—a highly vulnerable region in the world—becomes increasingly apparent, building a climate-resilient region must be pursued swiftly. Through our climate insights, we serve the readers a story of what happened in ASEAN energy-climate issues in the first quarter of 2020.
• COVID-19 swept the world at a frightening speed, harshly impacting human activity. It forces people to change their behaviour. Such behaviour change, strangely, coincides with climate change mitigation efforts, in a sense that it results in emission reduction. The COP Bureau of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) has announced the postponement of the UN COP26, which initially to be held in Glasgow this November owing to COVID-19.
• Away from the hysteria of COVID-19, the risks of rising sea level already became a reality and will continually threaten the region, day by day.  Seeing this harmful impact, ASEAN must act quickly. If the ASEAN governments fail to heed the warning signs through a heightened effort to adapt and mitigate climate change jeopardies.