What is Climate Action?
In 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was instituted and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly as part of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, which sought to create a future global development framework (United Nations, 2023). The 2030 Agenda was actualised in the form of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which ultimately aimed to be "a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".
Of the 17 SDGs, SDG 13 Climate Action, establishes the basis of this study, as it urges UN member states to “take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts” (United Nations, 2023). As a whole, this encourages more governments to implement courses of action through nationally determined contributions (NDCs) as stated in the 2015 Paris Agreement by the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) (United Nations, 2017).
What is the Southeast Asian Climate NPOs Repository?
The main mission and aim of this research study is to document systematically the progress and implementation of Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs), volunteer, non-governmental climate action in Southeast Asian countries. The repository is currently focusing on the 10 ASEAN countries and will endeavour to include more countries in the region and possibly expanding to include other countries in the future.
This website services as a one-stop information sharing platform for interested individuals that are wanting to learn more about the non-profit, volunteer sector as it contains the information of the various NPO in each country in this region. Click on the "Database" tab and feel free to search for a country or a specific organisation.
The "Insights" tab will contain and share several insights that the study has found and will be updated in due course.
If your organisation is not listed or if you have any feedback, do feel free to reach us via the "Contact Us" tab.
Why Non-Profit Organisations?
While most NDCs are largely ambitious by nature to limit global temperature rise within 1.5 degrees, admittedly, governments may still fall short of fully realising SDG13 solely through state-led policies and programmes. At times, this pushes non-state or third-sector organisations to step up to fill in these gaps (Hale et al., 2020). These organisations typically do not belong to either the public or the private sector and are not-for-profit. In recent years, the non-profit organisations (NPOs) sector has seen a growth in numbers and capacity in their climate action progress and implementation (Hale et al., 2020).
NPOs are a crucial and central element of global and national responses to climate change. However, despite the scale, scope, and potential of climate action by sub- and non-state actors, we lack rigorous evidence regarding the results achieved and their broader impacts (Hale et. al, 2020). It is also paramount to quantitatively assess climate mitigation strategies undertaken by these entities to understand the credibility of this movement (Hsu et. al, 2018). By strategically assessing the progress of NPO’s climate action and implementation, this will lend more credibility to this field and help to boost and maintain its momentum.