The world is seeing fresh tensions between economic priorities and climate action, highlighted by the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and rolling back of environmental regulations. Questions are also mounting about US policy and trade tariffs, with implications for the global green economy. Elsewhere in the world, other economies are continuing to implement sustainability rules, such as the European Union’s flagship Regulation on Deforestation-free products (EUDR). But the EUDR has already been delayed by a year, and some in Europe are pushing for further changes to the regulation. ASEAN and Asian economies now need to contend with a rapidly shifting policy and business landscape.
In an uncertain world, the ASEAN region will need to reinvent its commodities industries. Much of Southeast Asia’s economic growth still depends on agricultural production and the export of tradable commodities. While sustainability for purely green reasons is now being questioned by global markets, it could be that sustainable production still matters for ASEAN – not only for environmental reasons, but also to ensure efficiency and profitability in the years ahead. ASEAN will need to strike a balance between increasing output to meet economic objectives and long-term sustainability goals. Beyond meeting international demand, commodity producers also need to supply Asia’s own consumption, not only from markets like China and India, but increasingly from within ASEAN itself. Indonesia, Malaysia, and other Southeast Asian economies are accelerating the development of higher-value downstream industries, laying the groundwork for future development.
The 12th Singapore Dialogue on Sustainable World Resources (SWR) will bring together policymakers, business leaders, and experts to discuss the future of sustainability and implications for ASEAN’s tradable commodities industries, including stakeholders from producing countries as well as Singapore as a home to commodities businesses, traders, and financial institutions that play a key role in this sector.
- How will trade rules being adopted by major economies affect businesses and sustainability in the ASEAN region?
- How will efforts to promote economic development and the downstreaming of industries in ASEAN affect the region’s domestic demand for resources and products?
- How can Singapore-based businesses and stakeholders play a positive role in increasing efficiency and sustainability in the region’s tradable commodities industries?
