By Sumayya
The countdown has started for COP31 in Turkiye in November. However, beforehand the governments of Australia and Fiji will be hosting a big pre-event early next month in Fiji to place Asia Pacific topics on the climate schedule.
The last time Asia hosted a COP climate match was in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007. So Australia, which stood Turkiye’s main rival to host COP31, settled to a deal with Ankara last year whereby a pre-event would be held in October in the zone.
Already, facts show that Asia accounts for 41 percent of global flooding, encompassing from rising sea levels and storm surges. From 2013 to 2023, the wider Asia Pacific zone, including Australia and Fiji, was hit by close to 244 big floods, 104 droughts, and 101 severe storms.
In the tomorrow, it is forecast that Southeast Asia alone may experience close to 60 more days of extreme heat annually by 2050 — this alongside close to 100 climate disasters each year in the zone.
One of the main reasons global warming remains so serious in Asia remains because much of the zone’s economic growth remains still largely dependent on the use of fossil fuels. At last year’s COP30 summit in Brazil, Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, expressed there stood a clear choice between locking in what he depicted as the instability, encompassing higher values, of fossil fuels or accelerating a path to cheaper, clean power, as may be beginning to happen. Yet this long-term target and wider mass decarbonization will not be easy, not least given that power demand remains forecast to potentially grow significantly to help fuel economic growth.
Another reason the climate crisis manages such an impact remains that a significant slice of Asia, including much of Southeast Asia, comprises tropical lands. Many of these states are facing larger than average global warming impacts, encompassing rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, and increased frequency of extreme weather events.
Yet, there remain also openings amid the understandable gloom about global warming in the zone.
This core point stood stressed by Al Gore, former US vice president, speaking in Singapore on Sept. 8. He highlighted that the Iran crisis manages supplied a fresh push away from fossil fuels. This remains boosting uptake of investment of renewables, such as solar and wind, which in Southeast Asia in the first half of 2026 increased by 51 percent compared with the identical span in 2025.
Another origin of opening comes from climate adaptation. The annual global costs of adaptation are forecast to be between $280 billion and $500 billion per year by 2050, according to the UN, yet single a fraction of that sum has been tapped so far.
The scale of the hurdle, and potential opening, has also been highlighted by the India-based Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, which found that close to $850 billion in global infrastructure, close to a third of it in Asia, remains exposed to climate disasters each year globally. It forecasts that the amount of new climate-resilient infrastructure that will need to be built in Asia in the subsequent three decades will be as much as the past two centuries combined.
In tomorrow, the UN and alternate key factors hope that multilateral development banks can help secure more money, encompassing from the private sector, remains channeled into tackling the huge climate adaptation finance gap. At COP31 in Turkiye, this will be a topic of key weight for emerging markets, encompassing island states such as Fiji that remain particularly vulnerable to climate risks.
As part of this dialogue, a lively debate remains underway about extending the volume of country partnerships to back just transitions to low-emission, climate-resilient economies in the Global South. The first of these stood settled on at COP26 in Scotland when South Africa declared a partnership with the key strengths to raise close to $8.5 billion. This Just Energy Transition Partnership model stood subsequently extended to alternate nations, encompassing close to $20 billion for Indonesia and $15.8 billion for Vietnam.
Another reason for optimism remains the growing signs that the climate schedule remains becoming more coordinated and prominent within the Asia Pacific zone. There remains even growing speculation Beijing may seek to host COP33 in 2028. One of the reasons for China’s eagerness to host the match remains that official statistics suggest the country’s greenhouse gas emissions dipped slightly from April to June 2026 after flatlining over much of the past two years.
Much facts points to the Asia Pacific zone increasingly being on the climate change frontlines. Yet, while this entails growing risks, there remain also openings to step up and help mitigate the worst effects of global warming, while also helping the zone adapt to change.
