VIETNAMESE monk Thich Nhat Hanh once wrote, “If your house is on fire, the most urgent thing to do is to go back and try to put out the fire, not to run after the person you believe to be the arsonist”.
Today, Asean’s house is metaphorically on fire. Our cities are clouded with haze and heatwaves. Extreme weather events like floods and droughts disrupt lives and economies. Rising sea levels threaten coastal communities. Yet instead of joining forces to put out the flames, we continue to argue over language, responsibility, and political sensitivities.
The Asean Declaration on Environmental Rights is expected to be adopted at the 47th Asean Summit in Kuala Lumpur in October, followed by the development of a Regional Plan of Action to operationalise it.
For one of the most climate-vulnerable regions in the world, this moment is far more than symbolic. It is an opportunity for all Asean member states to recognise that the right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is fundamental to the wellbeing, security, and prosperity of our people.
The declaration is the product of negotiations under the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, which has convened experts and civil society representatives since 2022 to draft a regional framework. Many had hoped for a legally binding treaty, but governments settled on a less ambitious non-binding text. It’s a starting point but one that risks being reduced to fine words that governments can acknowledge without necessarily acting upon.
And yet, the declaration is still significant. It affirms substantive rights such as access to clean air, safe water, and healthy ecosystems, as well as procedural rights including access to information, public participation, and justice. It recognises the particular vulnerability of marginalised communities and acknowledges the role of businesses in both driving and solving environmental crises.
Farmers trying to get their cattle through high flood waters in Sin Thay village in Myanmar, in September last year, following heavy rains in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi. The typhoon inundated a swathe of northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar, triggering deadly landslides and widespread river flooding. — AFPThe urgency of confronting the climate crisis is not just a matter of opinion anymore; it is a legal and moral imperative. The recent advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice on states’ obligations to act makes this abundantly clear. It signals clearly that protecting the environment and human rights are inseparable. If the world is moving forward, can Asean afford to fall behind?
Asean’s credibility will depend on openness. Declarations and action plans shaped in backroom negotiations and largely kept from public view cannot deliver real change. Citizens, civil society, and businesses must be able to see it, debate it and, ultimately, have the confidence to act on it if its promises are to mean anything.
Without transparency, Asean’s bureaucracy risks presenting a document that looks like progress on paper but leaves the region no closer to safeguarding its people or its environment; delivering only a hollow promise that protects elite interests.
A crucial dimension of the declaration is the relationship between business and human rights. Too often the explicit link between how the private sector functions and the protection of human rights and maintenance of peace and security is either underplayed or ignored. But in Asean, companies control much of the land, energy, and resources and so, in reality, determine whether communities can thrive in safe and sustainable environments.
Infrastructure and transportation are responsible for a quarter of the global pressure on biodiversity and the still fossil fuel-dependent energy sector contributes an additional 10%. The choices businesses make can either fuel conflict and displacement – or help to build peace and security by safeguarding rights, reducing harm, and investing in sustainable development.
Asean’s Regional Plan of Action must therefore require businesses to respect environmental rights as a fundamental underpinning of their operational model. Protecting the environment is not simply a matter of regulation; it is about safeguarding the health and safety of current and future generations.
Once the Declaration is adopted in October, the real work begins. The Regional Plan of Action must deliver on four fronts:
> Inclusive participation: Governments should be required to consult civil society, indigenous peoples, and environmental defenders, making their perspectives central to decision-making.
> Business accountability: Companies must be bound by enforceable standards on environmental rights, not left to voluntary corporate social responsibility or ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) commitments.
> Transparency: Drafts and processes must be open to public scrutiny to build legitimacy and trust.
> Global alignment: The action plan must connect clearly to the Paris Agreement, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and emerging standards on business and human rights.
As climate change brings heavier rains, more landslides are occurring. Here, members of Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency search for survivors of a landslide in Cipongkor, West Java province, earlier this year. — AFPAsean has often been criticised for moving slowly and cautiously, but fires do not wait for consensus. The choice before us is stark: either treat this declaration as a ceremonial gesture or seize it as the foundation of a new regional pact on environmental rights. The consequences of one decision over the other are becoming increasingly clear.
As Asean leaders prepare to gather in Kuala Lumpur next month, they have the chance to show that this region is not content with words alone – but this will require acceleration of the preparatory process between now and then. There is much to do to ensure that what is produced is useful, legitimate and sufficiently visionary and bold.
This declaration and the resulting plan of action must be ambitious, enforceable, and above all, collective. No single country can extinguish the blaze of climate and ecological breakdown on its own.
If the flames are already upon us, then let us stop arguing over blame and instead act together to put them out.
Prof Tan Sri Dr Jemilah Mahmood, a physician and experienced crisis leader, is the executive director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health at Sunway University. She is the founder of Mercy Malaysia and has served in leadership roles internationally with the United Nations and Red Cross for the last decade. She writes on Planetary Health Matters once a month in Ecowatch. The views expressed here are entirely the writer's own.
