COP30 aims to transition from climate pledges to tangible actions, focusing on community-led adaptation and resilience.
The Asia-Pacific region, heavily impacted by climate change, plays a crucial role in shaping global climate agendas.
The summit will emphasise climate justice, urging increased climate finance, reparations for loss and damage, and the inclusion of marginalised communities in decision-making processes.
Climate change, resource-driven conflicts and environmental disasters persist relentlessly across the globe, with the Asia-Pacific region bearing a significant brunt of these challenges.
In 2023-24 alone, hundreds of thousands of families have been severely impacted, contributing to a staggering total of over two million disaster-related deaths since 1970, which accounts for 60 per cent of the global figure.
In the first 10 months of 2024, nearly 6,000 fatalities were reported due to more than 140 disasters, predominantly from floods, cyclones, heatwaves and earthquakes.
Historically, from 1970 to 2022, the Asia-Pacific region has seen an average of 132 million people affected annually, a stark contrast to the 22 million affected in the rest of the world. As extreme weather events intensify, they exacerbate insecurity and fuel armed conflicts in already fragile areas marked by weak institutions and social unrest.
This region, home to 4.8 billion people — 60 per cent of the global population — has become a major source of international migrants, accounting for over 40 per cent of the total migrant population.
The year 2024 has been particularly tragic for migrants in Asia, with at least 2,514 lives lost along perilous migration routes, primarily affecting vulnerable groups such as the Rohingya fleeing Myanmar and Afghans escaping ongoing conflict and instability.
The main aim of the upcoming 30th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30) is to accelerate climate action and move from pledges to implementation by strengthening multilateralism, connecting climate action to people’s lives, and delivering on commitments made under the Paris Agreement. The summit will address the global challenge of climate change, calling for stronger international cooperation while empowering local communities to build resilience.
While looking forward to COP30, several pathways are available for Asia Pacific to advance climate resilience, equity and sustainable development.
Improving transformative community adaptation and resilience is the foremost among them. Integrating community-led adaptation, such as restoring mangrove ecosystems and riparian zones, helps protect coastlines, reduce disaster risks and preserve biodiversity, often led by women’s groups, youth collectives, and Indigenous communities.
Expanding early warning systems for vulnerable communities against natural hazards such as cyclones, tsunamis and glacial lake outburst floods is also crucial. Communities must be warned well in advance, as new areas are becoming vulnerable due to climate change. Sufficient shelters with food and other essentials are also needed to weather crises.
Then, investing in climate-resilient sectors, including flood-resistant agriculture, livelihoods, renewable energy infrastructure and improving urban planning to address rapid urbanisation will become imperative. Particular attention must be given to traditional and sustainable livelihoods such as pastoralism, fishing, and agriculture. Their ecosystem services should be recognised and fairly compensated.
Finally, strengthening climate finance will be key to sustainable development in the region. Negotiations ahead of COP30 focus on the Baku-to-Belem Roadmap to operationalise the new climate finance goal, aiming to mobilise a minimum of $1.3 trillion annually for developing countries by 2035.
The Asia-Pacific region plays a pivotal role in shaping the global climate agenda by informing COP30 priorities and accelerating progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.
COP30 provides a key opportunity for countries to present stronger 2035 climate plans aligned with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal. Regional initiatives are helping countries embed adaptation priorities, particularly in the agricultural sector, into these plans.
Without robust climate justice policies at the national level focused on resilience, preparedness and adequate loss-and-damage compensation such target-setting risks being unsustainable.
Climate justice reframes climate change as a multifaceted issue encompassing social, ethical, and legal dimensions, rather than viewing it solely as an environmental concern. This perspective emphasises the protection of human rights, particularly for the most vulnerable populations affected by climate change.
Recent discussions have highlighted the challenges surrounding just transition agreements, arguing that corporate interests have undermined these efforts, often neglecting critical factors such as class, caste, gender, and ethnicity.
Marginalised communities are disproportionately impacted, facing intensified pressures from industries that perpetuate dirty energy practices. To achieve a fair transition away from fossil fuels, it is essential to include ethnic minority groups and Indigenous Peoples in decision-making processes, ensuring that their needs and the consequences of the transition are recognised and addressed.
Governments, organisations, and activists should push for the following outcomes at COP30:
To effectively address the climate crisis, climate financing must increase and be provided as grants rather than loans with burdensome conditions. Funding should prioritise the most vulnerable communities, including rural women food producers, pastoralists, fisherfolk, and urban informal workers, who are disproportionately affected by climate change.
Clear commitments to reparations for loss and damage are needed, holding large polluters accountable for their historical responsibilities. The Global North should provide fair compensation to Indigenous and local communities suffering from the impacts of climate change, recognising that those most affected often bear the least responsibility for environmental degradation.
The link between climate change and conflict must be acknowledged, as factors such as poor governance, inequality, and resource scarcity can drive migration and exacerbate tensions.
Promote food sovereignty by supporting peasant agroecology and other sustainable food production and distribution models as viable alternatives to industrial food systems. Local initiatives should empower women and small-scale farmers, receiving unconditional support from national and international resources.
Governments must enhance agricultural budgets and safeguard local seed systems, adhering to the principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent from small-scale food producers and consumers.
Foster community adaptation by engaging youth, women, and community leaders from vulnerable areas to restore ecological health in fragile ecosystems such as coasts and hills. This can include mangrove restoration, planting native trees and shrubs, and promoting traditional, sustainable livelihoods in agriculture, fishing, and forestry.
Strengthen community resilience beyond infrastructure by increasing funding for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in public and international budgets. All development and private investments, which constitute 75 per cent of total investments, must be informed by risk assessments and designed to be resilient. Current programmes often neglect critical aspects of community resilience beyond physical infrastructure, such as alternative livelihoods, compensation for lost workdays, community-level early warning systems, and employment guarantees during lean seasons in urban, coastal, and hilly regions.
Both the Global North and Global South, along with financiers of the oil, gas, and coal sectors, must cease all new fossil fuel exploration. Governments should prioritise a sovereignty agenda focused on phasing out fossil fuels and committing to a just energy transition. The rights of women, Indigenous Peoples, and their communities to provide Free, Prior, Informed, and Continuous Consent regarding fossil fuel extraction and combustion projects in their territories must be upheld, with fair compensation for any losses or damages incurred.
To enable a swift transition to a more equitable and environmentally harmonious society, we must embrace concepts such as energy sufficiency for all, energy sovereignty, and energy democracy. Promoting free energy technologies, viewing energy as a common good, and striving for 100 per cent renewable energy through community-owned initiatives and low-impact solutions are vital steps in this transformation.
The Global North must end waste colonialism by halting the dumping of waste in the Global South and excluding waste-to-energy incineration from climate action plans. The expansion of petrochemicals should be stopped, plastic production reduced, and single-use plastics and packaging phased out across sectors. Investments should focus on waste reduction and zero-waste circular economy systems, while holding polluting companies accountable for their contributions to plastic pollution and global warming, in line with the “polluter pays” principle.
Debabrat Patra works as associate director and humanitarian lead at ActionAid Association India. The views expressed are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the organisation or Down To Earth.