The complexities of the climate crisis are no better exemplified than in Asia. With diverse hot-humid, tropical, and subtropical climates, the region is experiencing more frequent and severe events such as cyclones, floods, heatwaves, landslides, and droughts. In 2024 alone, floods in Pakistan displaced more than 140,000 people; back-to-back typhoons in the Philippines and southern China affected millions; and flash floods in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Kerala killed hundreds. In the first three quarters of 2024, natural disasters across China affected 84 million people, caused 836 deaths or missing persons, and resulted in direct economic losses of approximately ¥323 billion (roughly $45 billion), with floods specifically responsible for around ¥236 billion of those losses. These disasters are displacing millions, damaging livelihoods, and threatening food and water security.
CLIMATE IMPACT – HEAT AND DISASTERS
WMO’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 reports that Asia warmed at nearly double the global average rate since 1961, with 2024 the warmest or second warmest year on record. Sea surface temperatures around the region were the highest on record. In 2024, the continent saw record marine heatwaves, glacial mass loss in the central Himalayas and Tian Shan, and devastating cyclones and floods – Typhoon Yagi (Asia’s most intense storm of 2024) caused at least 844 deaths across eight countries, with more than 1 million people evacuated in southern China alone. Research suggests 45% of the world’s ~490,000 annual heat-related deaths occur in Asia.
Asia’s high exposure to climate risks, dense populations, inequality, and developing economies make climate change a defining force for its future. The region produces about 40% of global emissions – mainly from China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia – yet remains reliant on fossil fuels despite net-zero pledges and renewable potential. ADB’s 2024 Asia–Pacific Climate Report projects that climate change could cut regional GDP by up to 41% by 2100, with low-income countries hit hardest.
Vulnerable groups are most affected: many live in poverty, with coastal, farming, and mountain communities facing severe threats. Women carry greater unpaid care burdens, and Indigenous peoples face displacement from land loss. Climate-driven migration is rising, often forcing people into unsafe conditions or risky international movement.
Climate injustices in Asia are deeply intertwined with historical and structural inequalities; colonial legacies, extractive development, and unfair trade, all heighten the region’s vulnerability. Efforts to reduce climate risk are growing, but worsening climate impacts, limited fiscal space, and inadequate international finance trap many countries in ongoing cycles of loss and damage.
Across the region, momentum for change is growing. Despite shrinking civic space, grassroots movements – youth, Indigenous groups, women, farmers, and unions – are advancing locally rooted, justice-focused climate solutions, from disaster risk reduction to agroecology and renewable energy. These efforts are a critical entry point to invest in scalable, justice-centered climate solutions.
Governments are also paying more attention, with regional platforms such as ASEAN’s Centre for Energy, and the upcoming Centre for Climate Change, strengthening cooperation. As Bangladesh and Nepal delay LDC graduation (while Lao PDR stays on track for 2026), new financing challenges and opportunities are emerging.
Global commitments have expanded– at COP30 in Belém in November 2025, Parties agreed to triple adaptation finance by 2035 and took note of the Baku-to-Belém Roadmap to mobilise $1.3 trillion per year in climate finance for developing countries by 2035. For Asia, which the ADB estimates needs $1–1.5 trillion annually in climate finance, the gap between commitment and need remains the defining structural challenge.
Civic space is shrinking across Asia, with activists facing surveillance, criminalization, and violence. Still, movements endure, as rights defenders, Indigenous groups, feminists, and economic justice advocates continue campaigns on land, environment, climate justice, and against harmful investments by international financial institutions.
CIVIC SPACE — LAND AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS
Global Witness recorded 16 killings or disappearances in Asia in 2024, including eight in the Philippines, five in Indonesia, one in India, one in Cambodia and one in Türkiye. The Philippines has been Asia’s deadliest country for defenders every year since 2012 (306 cumulative cases). Across just four Asian countries (the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Vietnam), 341 defenders were arrested or detained between 2018 and 2024 – a figure widely understood to be a substantial underestimate. Indigenous Peoples, who comprise around 6% of the global population, account for about a third of attacks worldwide.
Oxfam and CAN convene diverse, often disconnected movements across Asia, supporting civic space and alliances – especially youth and feminist groups – through fellowships, mentorship, and funding for mobilization around global climate events. They amplify youth voices, back initiatives like the Asia Feminist Coalition, and create spaces for CSOs on just energy and climate finance.
Oxfam also runs the “Make Climate Finance Work for Asia” campaign, shaping narratives through media engagement and storytelling, including the annual Asia Media Forum. Its climate work prioritizes accountability, empowering communities with tools and platforms to demand action and justice.
Oxfam’s 2022 State of Climate Finance in Asia report found South and Southeast Asia received just $113 billion in climate finance (2013–2020) against needs of $1.3 trillion annually to 2030, with only about 0.5% reaching local communities or supporting locally led efforts, meaning that local communities and governments don’t have a say in how the climate finance is mobilized and utilized.
CLIMATE FINANCE – THE ASIA GAP
ADB’s Asia–Pacific Climate Report 2024 estimates that Asia and the Pacific need between $102 billion and $431 billion per year for adaptation alone, against only $34 billion in tracked adaptation finance in 2021–2022. ADB places the region’s overall annual climate finance need at $1–1.5 trillion. The COP29 New Collective Quantified Goal (Baku, December 2024) set a $300 billion per year floor by 2035, with the Baku-to-Belém Roadmap noted at COP30 envisaging $1.3 trillion per year by 2035 – a fraction of what developing countries said was required.
Most climate finance in Asia comes as loans, not grants, increasing debt for vulnerable countries. Major providers like the Asian Development Bank and World Bank offer minimal grant-based support. Funding is also declining due to geopolitical tensions, rising military spending, and cuts to aid after the 2025 U.S. withdrawal from key commitments – worsening the gap between needs and available finance.
Oxfam and CAN expose funding shortfalls and overreporting by development banks while building civil society capacity to track and monitor climate finance by using guidance and toolkits such as the Climate Finance Accountability Initiative.
We aim to overcome the challenges in access to climate finance by equipping civil society in tracking climate finance flowing from international level to the local level, demand accountability from donors and international financial institutions and fostering South–South collaboration. This includes by improving access, and fostering regional cooperation through mechanisms like ASEAN, SAARC, and other intergovernmental platforms.
Locally led adaptation initiatives are growing across Asia but remain underfunded and overlooked. A4CJ and partners support community planning, women-led nature-based solutions, and integration with disaster resilience and local budgeting.
Innovations like parametric insurance and programs on water governance, early warning systems, and agroecology are strengthening resilience. Despite these efforts, climate disasters continue to cause widespread loss, highlighting the need to scale up effective, community-driven solutions.
Act for Climate Justice is advancing a Just Energy Transition by influencing policy, tracking energy finance through the Fair Finance Asia program, and highlighting gendered impacts. We also conduct research on transition minerals, promote transparency, and expose human rights abuses in renewable supply chains—advocating for fair, equitable systems that avoid shifting environmental burdens to developing countries in Asia.
ENERGY ACCESS – THE UNFINISHED TRANSITION
Per the IEA’s 2024–2025 SDG7 tracking, developing Asia has reached 98% electricity access, with India, Indonesia and Bangladesh now at universal access. However, around 107 million people in the region remain without electricity, concentrated in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Mongolia and the DPRK. Globally, around 2 billion people still lack access to clean cooking fuels and technologies, of which roughly half live in developing Asia – the largest share among the world’s regions.
Act for Climate Justice works to strengthen country networks and regional collaboration, including partnering with the ASEAN Centre for Energy on a gender-inclusive renewable energy roadmap. With CANSEA, we support Just Energy Transition networks for shared learning, while promoting community-led renewable energy and productive energy use through partnerships with local actors and governments.
JUST ENERGY TRANSITION – JETPS UNDER STRESS
The Just Energy Transition Partnerships announced for Indonesia ($20 billion in 2022) and Vietnam ($15.5 billion in 2022) fall far short of needs – Indonesia’s investment plan estimates $96.1 billion is required by 2030 for power-sector decarbonisation, with existing commitments covering only 21%; Vietnam’s power-sector decarbonisation alone is estimated at $134.7 billion. Across both deals, only 3-4% of committed finance is grants. In 2025, the second Trump administration withdrew the US from the Indonesia JETP, weakening the structural foundation of the model.
Fossil gas is wreaking havoc on communities across Asia, and is not a viable solution for a clean, safe energy future. Yet the World Bank Group and other MDBs are still backing gas, albeit indirectly through financial intermediaries and technical assistance. This video, produced by Recourse and Indus Consortium, brought the voices of women affected by a gas plant in Pakistan to the decision makers at the World Bank Group in Washington DC, which financially backed the gas plant.