The recent Southeast Asia Climate Outlook Survey 2023 by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute showed a declining view of climate change as a threat.

Only 49 per cent of respondents perceived climate change as “a serious and immediate threat to the well-being of (their) country” compared to 69 per cent in 2021.

The survey, conducted over four weeks from July to August this year, collected the responses of 2,225 Southeast Asian residents across 10 countries.

Some 58 per cent of Brunei respondents stated that climate change is an important issue that deserves to be monitored and another 22 per cent respondents said the issue is a serious and immediate threat to the well-being of the Sultanate.

Despite a pronounced drop in the level of climate urgency, the report noted worries over food security where more than two-third of regional respondents indicated “somewhat” or “very concerned” about climate change impacts on food availability and affordability in the next three years.

More than half of Philippines respondents are “very concerned”. Seven in 10 respondents in Malaysia (69.9 per cent) and Indonesia (70.2 per cent) are either “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned”.

As for Brunei respondents, 34 per cent were somewhat concerned about climate change impacts on food availability and affordability in the next three years, while another 32 per cent were little concerned. Only 16 per cent were very concerned.

Brunei respondents’ biggest concern was floods affecting food production and distribution (73 per cent) and sea level rise affecting farmland (32 per cent).

Some 34.7 per cent of regional respondents attribute food insecurity to rising food prices, followed by climate change (25.6 per cent) and poor government policy (18.2 per cent).

Approximately half of all respondents from Singapore and Brunei were concerned about rising prices as reasons for food insecurity. The survey also showed that the two countries more likely to say that they were not exposed to climate impacts were Laos (21.5 per cent) and Brunei (21.3 per cent).

Approximately 14 per cent of Southeast Asia respondents said they experience food insecurity either “all the time” or “frequently”. It was consistent with the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) findings that approximately 16.4 per cent of Southeast Asians experienced moderate or severe food insecurity.

Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines indicated the highest levels of experiencing food insecurity “all the time”. Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia participants meanwhile indicated the lowest food insecurity levels.

Although Southeast Asians believe that their governments must be responsible for climate change, the majority of respondents argued that civil society organisations (30.2 per cent) were the most active in tackling climate change in their country. The view was strongly shared by Malaysia (38.2 per cent), Indonesia (37.6 per cent), Myanmar (34.8 per cent) and the Philippines (30.2 per cent). Brunei, Singapore, Cambodia and Vietnam had the largest proportion of those who thought the authorities were active.

Around half of the respondents from the region (51.1 per cent) believed that fossil fuel subsidies should be cut in their country, while 31.8 per cent were unsure and 17.1 per cent disagree. Respondents from Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand expressed the strongest support for cutting subsidies. The largest group of respondents who were unsure or did not want fossil fuel subsidies to be cut were from Brunei. – Azlan Othman