 Good morning, and welcome to Sunway City, Kuala Lumpur. Well, let me say some introductory words. I am Wu Wing Tai, the lucky person who is the Vice President for Asia for the SDSN, and in charge of the KL office. Young Pahomat, Nick Nasmi, Minister of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change. Tan Siri Jeffricha, Founder and Chairman of Sunway Group, the largest social enterprise in Malaysia. And my fellow participants in the third ASEAN workshop on Sustainable Development. Let me put some perspective on the mission that we are embarking on by showing you a picture of Sunway City in the 1970s. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you are sitting on what used to be the slope of an abandoned teen mind. Sunway City is an upstanding example of successful land rehabilitation and of creative urban planning. Show the next slide so we can not make a liar out of me. Okay, let's go back to the first slide, the beginning. Thank you. My three-word summary of what our workshop is all about development, resilience and sustainability. Many of my fellow Malaysians will no doubt recognize that these three words also describe the history of the rapid growth of the Sunway Group, the resilience to the Asian financial crisis, and its constant introductions of pioneering sustainability practices. A recent example of Sunway's innovation in sustainability practices is the mechanism for mobilization of its entire workforce through an innovative internal carbon pricing mechanism. The mechanism works by setting the carbonization targets for every business unit and the business units that fail to achieve the targeted amount would receive a bonus less than what the units, the other units that achieve their bonus targets. In other words, there is a financial mechanism that constantly motivate the staff to come up with new ways to reduce the carbon footprint of the business unit. And as the first, as this picture clearly shows, Tansuri Jeffreecha is a pioneering environmentalist. In 2016, Tansuri Jeffreecha joins up with Professor Jeffrey Secks to form the partnership between Sunway University and SDSN to ensure the development, the achievement of the 17 SDGs by 2030. Tansuri Jeffreecha has put almost 20 million US dollars into this partnership to accelerate the achievement of SDGs globally. I let me give you three examples of the kind of projects that the SDSN Asia office is involved in. The principle of our operations is to mobilize regional collaboration on projects that make a difference. The first project I wanna talk about is the ASEAN Green Future Project, which involves nine residence ASEAN country teams designing country-specific packages to scale up climate actions in the countries. This work is being coordinated by SDSN and Climate Works Center of Monash University, Australia. The second project in regional collaboration is the Science Panel for Southeast Asia Biodiversity. This project is a follow-up of the highly successful study by the Science Panel for the Amazon on the present state of the Amazon and what are the development pathways that are compatible with the achievement of the 17 SDGs. The newly elected Brazilian president, Lula da Silva, is now globalizing this report of the Science Panel for the Amazon. Just before G20 met in Bali in November last year, he forged an agreement with the Congo and Indonesia to form the OPEC for rainforest. And here in Sunway, SDSN is starting the project by forming the Science Panel for Borneo, which would involve close collaboration between Indonesian scholars and Malaysian scholars. The third example of region-wide mobilization is project 4.7, mission 4.7. Well, excuse me for my excitement. Mission 4.7 is about the delivery of education for sustainable development to schools from K to 12. Mission 4.7 is hated by Pope Francis, former UN General Secretary, Pankin Mun, Tansuri Jeffery-Chia, UNESCO Director General Azuleh, Audrey Azuleh, and Jeffery Saxe. SDSN Asia is the Secretariat of Mission 4.7. We know that we are in very uncertain times. It is no accident that the SDSN Asia Office is founded at the time of the worsening of Cold War 2.0. We have a hot war in Ukraine and a cold war in the South China Sea. We know that relations among countries are a combination of cooperation in some areas and competition in other areas. The goal of SDSN Asia is to strengthen cooperation in sustainable development, to generate big enough reservoirs of mutual goodwill that will offset the antagonism from competition in the economic and geo-strategic spheres. In practice, SDG 17, International Partnership, nearly always plays the role of capitalists in achieving the other 16 SDGs. Fellow participants, it is now time to start our discussion on how to entrench sustainable development practices into our everyday economic life. Let me invite the visionary Tansuri Jeffery-Chia to kick off our discussions. Tansuri. Tansuri Datuksri Dr. Jeffery-Chia is the founder and chairman of Sunway Group, one of Southeast Asia's leading conglomerates and the founder and trustee of Jeffery-Chia Foundation. Adopting a social enterprise model, the Foundation is the largest of its kind in advancing education in Malaysia. Born in the small, thin mining town of Pusing in Perak, Tansuri grew up surrounded by the ugly scars of disused mining pools and witnessed firsthand how poverty closed off avenues of advancement for many families. These formative experiences shaped Tansuri's convictions that quality education offers the best route out of poverty and that sustainable development is vital to the nation's future well-being. After returning from Melbourne, Australia as a business graduate, he joined a local moto assembly plant as an accountant. He turned to entrepreneurship not long after with a vision to transform 800 acres of abandoned mining lakes into Sunway City Kuala Lumpur today, Malaysia's first integrated green township. The very founding of Sunway Group is based on the concept of sustainable development. Tansuri's business success has allowed him to realise his lifelong dream of setting up a foundation dedicated to nation-building and giving back to society. The foundation has dispersed 618 million ringgit in scholarships and grants as of 2022 and it is Tansuri's goal to give out several billion ringgit in scholarships during his lifetime. The foundation also established active partnerships with top-tier universities such as Cambridge, Oxford and Lancaster in the UK and Harvard, MIT, Boston and UC Berkeley in the US. Such collaborations facilitate knowledge transfer and make world-class expertise accessible to Malaysians. Through the foundation, Tansuri has also gifted 20 million US dollars to the United Nations to establish the Jeffrey Sachs Centre on Sustainable Development at Sunway University and the Asia headquarters of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network at Sunway University to lead continent-wide sustainability initiatives. In 2021, Sunway University set up the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health, which will work with existing institutions at Sunway University to further advance the sustainability agenda in this part of the world. Tansuri is one of four co-chairs driving Mission 4.7, a global initiative for the United Nations that aims to mandate governments worldwide to include a sustainability curriculum in all schools from kindergarten to secondary school levels. For his commitment to nation-building and full embrace of the sustainability agenda, Tansuri has been conferred 12 honorary doctrines by leading universities worldwide. He is also a member of Harvard University's Global Advisory Council and the only Malaysian and the second philanthropist in Asia to have been recognised four times as Forbes Asia Hero of Philanthropy. In 2008, Tansuri was appointed by Australia's Prime Minister, an officer of the Order of Australia, one of the country's most prestigious and highest recognitions conferred to a non-citizen. Thank you for a very good introduction, Professor Wu. Yambroha Mat, Nick Nassmi, Nick Ahmad, Minister of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change. Professor Jeffrey Sacks, President of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solution Network, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Sanway City, Kuala Lumpur. As most of you know, Sanway University houses the Asia Headquarters of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, or UNSTSN. This Asia Headquarters is one of only three such global centres in the world, working on continent-wide sustainability solutions. It ranks Sanway City, Kuala Lumpur, which oversees Asia alongside New York City, which covers the Americas, and Paris, which is responsible for Europe and Africa. This conference here is a prime example of this mission to advance the sustainability agenda in the region. Now, ladies and gentlemen, even as the Asian countries are undertaking efforts towards sustainable development, many challenges remain. The Reason Global Sustainable Development Report, 2023, paints a big picture. As we arrive at the halfway point of the 2030 agenda, the report states that some 85% of the HDG targets will not be met if we continue on our current path. It is not hard to see why. The world just experienced its hottest week ever since such records have been kept. At the rate we are going, 2023 may well end up as the year with the highest temperatures in recorded history. And just this week, more than 200 of the world's top economists signed an open letter urging the UN and the World Bank to act decisively to reverse the extreme and growing levels of social and economic inequality. In addition, there is a war raging in the heart of Europe where US-China tensions are growing. We are now living in a time of extreme uncertainty. I do not need to go into the details. Instead, I would like to focus on the fundamental question of where do we go from here. We must have the courage to take the necessary steps to build a future that is economically just, socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable for our world. Ladies and gentlemen, unlike most of you here, I am neither an academic nor an expert. I am just an entrepreneur doing business with the heart. And the philanthropists committed to nation building and shaping a brighter future for our world. As an entrepreneur, I am focused on outcomes. As a philanthropist, I am committed to making a positive impact on society. And based on these beliefs, I fully believe that implementing the sustainability agenda is no longer an option but an urgent imperative. I am an optimist by nature. Even in these deeply challenging times, I strongly believe that humanity can and will rise to the challenges that confront us. And I believe a major factor for now for how we have come to where we are today is our obsession with economic growth as measured by the cross domestic product or GDP. GDP has come to be seen as the proxy for the wealth of a nation. But why GDP can be effective in measuring how much we produce, export, or consume if foreshort in the valuing the quality of life? And we need a wider lens to measure how we are doing. The good news is that the path towards this transformation has already been chartered for us in the form of the 17 STGs by the United Nations. These comprehensive visions towards sustainable development is perhaps best sum up by our friend here, Professor Jeffrey Sacks, who helped design the STGs. He said, and I quote, the concept of sustainable development stands for a holistic approach to globalization, one that combines economic growth with social inclusion, environmental sustainability, and peaceful societies. I hope I have quoted Professor Jeffrey Sacks right. Thank you. I trust that the video which was shown just now will give you an idea about what we at Sunway and the Jeffrey Chia Foundation are doing to advance the sustainability agenda in this region. Now, ladies and gentlemen, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were hopes that the devastation caused by this virus would help spark a deep reflection in how we value our lives and well-being of our planet. Clearly, we need a reset in our economic, financial, and industrial architecture if we are to address the challenges of what is now labelled as the entrepreneurial era. I have already referred to the obsession with growth as measured by GDP, but growth for what? For whom? And at what cost to the planet? As the late US Senator Robert F. Kennedy said, and I quote, GDP measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile. I quote, even more to the point, why do we continue to rely on a metric designed for the industrial era when we are clearly living in a vastly different economic landscape? And given our current times, we need new ideas and new perspectives. And I firmly convince that we cannot overcome the challenges of the digital age by using analog mindsets. Ladies and gentlemen, in this context, I personally feel that the discussion and debates regarding the state of the planet and its people should expand beyond science and data. And I believe that it is equally important that we pay attention to the role of ethical values in building a sustainable future. And in other words, in the words of the late Muhammad Gandhi, and I quote, the world has enough for everyone's needs but not enough for everyone's greed. I hope this aspect of ethical values is given a more active voice in addressing humanity's challenges, including in your deliberation here today. As the Native American Pro says, and I quote, we do not inherit the earth from our ancestor. We borrow it from our children. I quote. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I have always believed that each of us should have a higher purpose in life. For me personally, that purpose is to give back to society in an impactful and building a better world for our children. And my personal motto is I aspire to inspire before I expire. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that our example at Sunway and the Jeffrey Chow Foundation will encourage other corporations and individuals in the region to adopt and promote the sustainability agenda. We strongly believe that sustainability and profitability can go hand in hand and that we can all do well by doing good. Our efforts here at Sunway and the Jeffrey Chow Foundation are driven by the conviction that realizing the 17 SDGs is not the responsibility of governments alone. Building a sustainable future requires the commitment of all segments of society, that is the private sector, academia, civil society, and of course, every single one of us. We are all in this together, ladies and gentlemen. In closing, I would like to thank Professor Wu and his team at the UNSDSN for organizing this timely AWSD 2023 conference. And I wish you all a very productive and fruitful discussion and building a better tomorrow for the world. Thank you and enjoy the day. We had originally had the Secretary-General of ASEAN, Kaohsiung Moon coming. He's a longtime friend of both Tan Sri Chia and Jeffrey Secks. But the Cambodian election is being held two days from now. And so he's home serving his country. So he has census and a recording. So maybe have his message. Agency on World, Abraham, Prime Minister of Malaysia. Agency Ministers from the SMM States and Partners. Agency Amida, Sarsia, Alisha Banna, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Professors Jeffrey Secks, President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. First I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to the government of Malaysia for graciously hosting this workshop. I also wish to offer my sincere congratulations to Professor Jeffrey Secks. Tan Sri Dr. Jeffrey Chia, Professor Wu Weng Tai, and the entire team at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network for organizing this important workshop. Initially I plan to attend this workshop physically, but due to my unexpected commitment to serve the general elections in Cambodia, I had to give a pre-record remarks. It is my great pleasure and honor to address you today at the Agency Ministers' Workshop on Sustainable Development. This workshop is a valuable platform to discuss the crucial issues surrounding sustainable development, particularly within the context of ASEAN. These discussions are crucial in our line of collective efforts to keep ASEAN sustainable and economically vibrant. I still remember that I had the great opportunity to be present in a certain way at the second iteration of this event in 2019. At the time we deliberated on the plans of ASEAN countries towards sustainable development, only to be derailed by the pandemic that surely followed that meeting. Much has changed since 2019 globally and in Southeast Asia. Attention on sustainability is increasingly urgent. The Sustainable Development Report 2023 published in June 2023 revealed that at the current pace of progress, none of the Sustainable Development Goals SDG will be achieved by 2030. In addition, less than 20% of the SDG targets are on track to be accomplished on average. These findings reinforce the need to reassess our approach and allocate necessary resources to accelerate progress towards the SDGs. ASEAN did well in the areas of public reduction SDG-1 and quality of education SDG-4. However, the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the progress we have made with the SDGs and ASEAN development initiatives. It also exposed the risks, vulnerabilities, and inequalities that have plagued us for many years. And adequate health systems, gaps in social protection, structural inequalities, environmental degradation and the climate crisis. The spotlight on these inequalities calls for inclusive action. This includes assessing our preparedness for future shocks, such as financial and health crisis, enhancing economic and digital resilience, addressing gaps in social protection and transitioning to sustainable and green economies. ASEAN demonstrated strong economic resilience with 5.7% growth in 2022, driven by robust domestic consumption, enhanced investment and expanded trade. While growth prospects are dampened by moderating global demand coupled with high inflation and tighter finance, the region is projected to maintain a positive growth trajectory at 4.7% in 2023 and 5.0% in 2024. ASEAN is taking active steps to enhance the resilience of our member states, including through the ASEAN comprehensive recovery framework. The adoption of the ASEAN Declaration in Human Resource Development for the changing world of work also reflects the region's steadfast commitment to equip our workforce with the competence to be relevant and resilient in the future. The ASEAN's region's commitment towards the implementation of SDGs will reinforce at different high level meetings. For example, the second ASEAN Ministerial Dialogue on Accelerating Actions to achieve the SDGs has highlighted addressing poverty as a top priority. This includes addressing complex and interlocking challenges that low-income families face and ensure inclusive and sustainable growth in the region. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, as the region emerges from the pandemic, ASEAN will double our efforts on six priorities, namely peace, prosperity, planet-people partnership and potentials. These priorities are known as the sixth piece, also resonating with several of the sustainable goals. First, building on the prosperity of ASEAN remains a top priority to further economic development for our people and ensure that no one is left behind. Second, we cannot take our peace for granted. ASEAN has to continue what it has been doing in the past 55 years in maintaining peace, stability and security, which has been a strong foundation for the region. Third, focusing on priorities of the planet, especially the environment, climate change and the green economy remains necessary. Fourth, we need to protect and empower our people, especially the youth and women. To further strengthen ASEAN community building as an integration in people to people's ties. Fifth, it is essential to further enhance partnerships within ASEAN and also with external partners to ensure our work will remain relevant and reach our people and sectors. And sixth, transforming ASEAN's potentials and two tangible benefits for the ASEAN community is a important priority. The ASEAN 2025 and the post-2025 vision outlined our future plans, which also contains our unwavering commitment to sustainable development. The ASEAN member states are committed to work together to implement the vision as its tenants, also their natural interests. The Madini framework instituted by Prime Minister Anwar Abril is a commendable example of sustainable development that has brought into national policy. By promoting a green and capable economy, the Madini framework aligns well with ASEAN's vision of achieving sustainable development goals, including poverty eradication, social inclusivity and environmental sustainability. At the global level, ASEAN's perspective on a sustainable development goal is deeply aligned with the SDGs. Paris Agreement on Climate Change, Convention on Biological Diversity, and Kunming Montreal Biodiversity Framework and other related multilateral environmental agreements. Through the framework of action on complementarities between ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, ASEAN has taken significant steps to track and measure SDG progress in the region. Through synergy and complementarities in our action, we can amplify our collective impact and accelerate sustainable development. In line with our commitment to sustainable development, to work on realizing SDGs under the ASEAN Outlook, on the Indo-Pacific, or AOIP, will be a major contribution of the region to the global community. The AOIP serves as an anchor for our cooperation and partnerships on SDGs and a platform for the promotion of enabling environmental peace, stability and prosperity in the region. Guided by the complementarities Roadmap 2020, ASEAN has a significant role in advancing the region's resilience, infrastructure, sustainable consumption and production, poverty eradication, and sustainable management of natural resources. The AOIP and the complementarities Roadmap will enable ASEAN to achieve new norm in sustainable development. Collaboration and support from the ASEAN Dialogue Partners on the AOIP are crucial as we work towards the realization of SDGs-related outcomes. ASEAN C's, ladies and gentlemen, we will need to leverage on new trends and growth opportunities in our programs and activities which will ensure that lives and livelihoods are protected with no risk. It will also allow ASEAN to be responsive to future trends and allow our region to remain in attractive trade and investment proposition for our global partners. Significant developments that will shape ASEAN's post-2025 future include digital transformation, changing your economics, and the future of the future. Transformation, changing your economics, decarbonization, green growth, sustainable use of biodiversity, demographic changes, and the emerging care economy, among others. We must recognize that attention and investments in these emerging growth areas have the potential to alleviate inequalities and have achieved multiple SDGs simultaneously. I am pleased to share ASEAN's collective actions to contribute to the global sustainable development agenda. First, it is ASEAN's priority to advance green growth and low-carbon development strategies. In fact, seven out of 10 ASEAN countries have pledged to be carbon neutral on net zero by 2050, with Indonesia pledging net zero by 2060. ASEAN has surpassed its aspiration energy target by achieving 21% of energy intensity reduction and 13.9% renewable energy share in the ASEAN total primary energy supply in 2018. The region will further bolster its efforts through the ASEAN Strategy for Carbon Neutrality, ASEAN Climate Finance Strategy, ASEAN Center for Climate Change, and other regional assessment reports to promote evidence-based decision-making on climate change. These endeavors will continue to strengthen ASEAN's ability to reduce greenhouse gases emissions. Second, ASEAN has been pursuing transition to circular economy approaches. Several initiatives include the Implementation Plan for the framework for circular economy for the ASEAN Economic Community and its work program. We also have the ASEAN-EU circular economy stakeholder platform to foster partnerships and generate innovative solutions. In addition, the ASEAN Sustainable Consumption Production, SCP framework, has been developed and will serve as a guiding reference to align efforts in promoting sustainable practices and circular economy principles. Third, ASEAN continues to harness digital transformation. Since 2021, ASEAN has introduced several initiatives in its digital integrated ecosystem, including the Ministry of Economic Development, and ASEAN Digital Transformation Agenda to accelerate ASEAN economic recovery and digital economy integration. The ASEAN Digital Master Plan, the Work Plan on Implementation of the ASEAN Agreement on Electronic Commerce 2021-2025, the ASEAN Cyber Security Cooperation Strategy 2021-2025, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution Integrated Strategy. The acceleration of these initiatives will support ASEAN's vision of becoming a leading digital community and economic bloc, driven by secure and transformative digital services, technologies and ecosystems. By the transformation in the areas of trade facilitation across border digital services and intellectual property and digital transformation of the education system, will reinforce ASEAN's commitment to providing access to safe and digital learning opportunities, ensuring equitability of access to education and lifelong learning, and promoting an inclusive and future-ready education system in ASEAN. Fourth, ASEAN is strengthening its commitment in promoting decent work, protection of vulnerable groups, and increasing youth participation at the national and regional levels. ASEAN has adopted the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection of Migrant Workers and Family Members in Crisis Situations and other agreements to support the inclusion of migrant workers and their families. The ASEAN Guiding Document to Implement the ASEAN Declaration on Promoting Competitiveness, Resilience, and Agility of Workers for the Future of Work will also encourage the harmonization of skilled training, standards, and professional certification systems, as well as the efforts to increase labor productivity of ASEAN member states. ASEAN continues to promote and protect women's rights and participation through different regional platforms, such as the ASEAN Women's Leaders Summit, as well as conferences and workshops. The ASEAN Regional Plan of Action on Women's Peace and Security, WPS, including the high-level dialogue on this pertinent issue, are also steadfast commitments of ASEAN to gender equality and for protection of women's rights, especially in situations of traditional security challenges and non-traditional and emerging threats. In addition, ASEAN recognizes the use of special leaders of ASEAN and the scoring the importance of providing them with ample opportunities and platforms of their potential through workshops and meaningful engagement with the leaders. The ASEAN leaders interface with the representative of ASEAN Youth during the ASEAN Summit recognizes youth roles in regional policy and development. Fifth, ASEAN continues to ensure the health and well-being of its people. ASEAN continues to focus on building and strengthening essential health services and prepare the region for future pandemics. There has been strong progress towards enhancing capacity of public health services to enable health emergency response, including the ASEAN Center for Research and Development on vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. ASEAN will plan on HIV and AIDS for 2021-2025 and ensure an end to the AIDS pandemic in ASEAN by 2030. The latest development in this area is the ASEAN Leaders' Declaration on One Health Initiative adopted this year, which catalyzes the regions who work on ensuring health and well-being for all ASEAN peoples. This initiative involves the development of a joint action plan on One Health to improve regional and national capacity capabilities and the establishment of One Health Network, which will hasn't the development and strengthening of multi-sectoral collaboration and coordination of One Health Initiative among the ASEAN member states through connections with existing and potential national mechanisms. And lastly, ASEAN recognizes the critical role of rural development in the achievement of the SDGs and ASEAN Community Vision 2025. During the 42nd ASEAN Summit in Laban Major in May 2023, ASEAN Leaders agreed to establish an ASEAN Village Network that will serve as a platform for whole community and inclusive participation, facilitate collaboration and cooperation among villages, exchange strategies to improve digital infrastructure, and facilitate better and wider rural products access to markets. Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, While considerable initiatives and regional mechanisms have been made, there are still opportunities for strengthening existing and emerging new partnerships and harness our collective potential. It is my hope that these ASEAN Ministers' Workshop on Sustainable Development can advance our partnership and actions. I look forward to learning from national efforts and innovative solutions to scale up inclusive action In closing, let me call for our collective commitment to the common goal of sustainable development driven by the urgency to address pressing challenges and build a better future for all. Substantial financial help and technology transfer from developed nations are necessary if ASEAN nations were to scale up their climate actions to achieve net zero emissions of greenhouse gases. The developed countries must deliver on the help that they promised at the signing of the Paris Climate Treaty in 2015. Together we can forge a path towards inclusive, sustainable and resilient outcomes for ASEAN. I wish you fruitful discussions at this time of workshop. Thank you. The next speaker is Minister Nick Nassmi. I can go through the long record of his outstanding scholarship and political leadership. I would do the easier thing by offering him the bribe of advising you to go to your neighbour bookstore, pick up the book, Son of Malaysia, read through the first five pages and the last five pages. If you do not buy the book, there's something wrong with you. So our next speaker has a very difficult portfolio. The portfolio covers natural resources, environment and climate. Traditionally, the Natural Resources Ministry is about the exploitation of natural resources for prosperity, a master-slave relationship between man and nature. Environment, it is the part about building peaceful coexistence between man and nature. So we have a person who has been given two tasks that are hard to reconcile if you look at the way that things have been done in the past. Luckily, he's guided by the Mandani Malaysia principles, which effectively makes him the minister of peace, progress and prosperity. Let me explain. It is not just peace between man and man, but also peace between man and nature. And we go beyond peace between man and nature. We also insist on progress between man and nature. The relationship has to be a synergistic one that yields win-win outcomes for both and hence ensuring the outcome of economic prosperity and sustainability. So may I have the Minister of Peace, Progress and Prosperity, please. I am Dr. Jeffrey Chia, chair of SSDN Malaysia, founder and chairman of Sunway Group and Chancellor of Sunway University. Professor Jeffrey Sacks, President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Dr. Rosemary G. Edelund, Undersecretary for Policy and Planning of the National Economic and Development Authority of the Philippines, Dr. Prabhagia Tansri-Razman Hashem, Deputy Chair of the Sunway Group, Professor Sibrandes Popema, President of Sunway University, Professor Elizabeth Lee, CEO of Sunway Education Group, Professor Wu Wingtai, Vice President for Asia and Heads of the KL Office, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Assalamu'alaikum, salam sahtra and a very good morning. I'd like to thank Prof. just now for giving a very generous introduction and for trying very hard to sell my book. I think I have to learn from Professor Sacks on how to sell my book better on the market. I'm very pleased to be speaking at the ASEAN workshop on Sustainable Development 2023 and I would like to thank the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the Geoffrey Chia Foundation and ASLEE for not only inviting me to be a panellist but holding for the conference like this in the first place. I don't think it's necessary for us to have a long discussion on why sustainable development matters. The result of us rejecting it would likely mean the end of our survival as a species on this planet. We only have one planet. As has been said many times, addressing climate change and hence its related imperatives, including enshrining sustainable development and a just energy transition may likely be the greatest challenges of our time. I think what is very apt about this session, converting crisis to opportunity, the ASEAN way and what attracted me to it is that it highlights that countries cannot address climate change or sustainable development in isolation. We are all interconnected and climate change as again the saying goes, respects no boundaries. To be sure, ASEAN, since its founding in 1967, helped to ensure peace, neutrality and connectivity in our region. It can however do much more and it is a fascinating prospect to see it as a possible avenue for us to strengthen sustainable development and win the war against climate change. Make no mistake, ASEAN matters. Southeast Asia is the fulcrum of Asia. We have an unbeatable strategic location, a combined population of nearly 670 million and a combined GDP of 3 trillion US dollars. We are the fifth largest economy in the world and this is only likely to grow. Thus, there can be no Asian century without Southeast Asia and there can be no Asian century without a sustainable one. And so, what we in Southeast Asia fail or succeed to do when it comes to sustainable development will have an Asian-wide if not global implications. Today, therefore, I would like to spend just a short time on what Malaysia has done with regards to sustainable development and then say a few things about what can be done on an ASEAN-wide scale. Malaysia has one pledge in our nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent to 2030. Two, we have also announced under the 12th Malaysia Plan that the country will seek to achieve net zero emissions earliest by 2050. Three, we are developing a long-term low emissions development strategy to provide context for long-term climate planning, development priorities, vision and future development direction. Fourth, we are also working hard on a climate change act which will establish a legal framework on climate change mitigation and compliance mechanisms. We are also finally after many, many years and many, many ministers. We are going to introduce this year an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act with the aim of regulating energy efficiency and conservation practices. We talk a lot about clean sources of renewable energy but at the other end of the equation is also about using our energy efficiently. Six, the NRACC has also collaborated with the International Renewable Energy Agency to publish Malaysia Energy Transition Outlook, METO, which explores the potential long-term energy pathway for our country to attain a cleaner and more sustainable energy system. Seventh, Malaysia's generation capacity for renewable energy will be increased to create new economic opportunities where by 2050, this new government has announced we are targeting 70% of energy capacity to come from renewable energy. Next, we also have allowed the cross-border renewable energy trading. This is the decision that we made in May 2023 and this will allow us to get the scale of renewable energy and to explore new technologies which are too expensive for our current tariffs, things like battery storage and other forms of new technology which we believe can be economical once we are allowed to sell our renewable energy abroad. And last but not least, we are also talking about the National Energy Transition Roadmap and the first phase will be launched next week with key flagship projects where the private sector can participate in order for us to accelerate our energy transition. In terms of ASEAN, it should be stressed that the above-mentioned cross-border renewable energy trading is part of our contribution to the creation of the long-awaited ASEAN power grid. We know that with more renewable energy, we need a better and much more connected grid across the region. That's the experience of Europe. We've seen that currently, Malaysia and Singapore are buying hydroelectricity from Laos via Thailand, but there are so many more opportunities. Interconnection between the peninsula and Sumatra, the long-awaited interconnection between Sarawak and Peninsula. Sarawak is already supplying energy to Kalimantan in Indonesia and now with the upcoming creation of the new capital city in Kalimantan. These are all opportunities for ASEAN to be connected and Malaysia is at the strategic location of being at the centre of all this. At the same time, ASEAN itself should be doing more in terms of RE. We know that some countries have been taking the lead in these matters. Philippines, for example, is one of the countries that has the largest amount of battery storage in the region. One of the things that has helped the Philippines, I think, is because the tariffs are such that makes it economical for them to pursue that. Vietnam, we know, has gone very far in terms of solar energy and in terms of capacity or potential capacity, ASEAN has the potential to generate 800 gigawatts of solar energy, 300 gigawatts of wind energy, and 200 gigawatts of hydroelectricity. The region's abundant renewable energy resources provide a competitive advantage for producing green hydrogen. The state of Sarawak has taken a lead on this, which requires large amounts of renewable electricity. As such, there is a need for greater and more concentrated regional collaboration in renewable energy. There is a need for not only regional developmental policies and road maps, but also working towards common policies and regulatory frameworks. We also need attractive investment policies and strategies to promote as well as facilitate its adoption in sectors like manufacturing and transportation as well as reduced costs. This gives us the opportunity to not only address climate change and the energy transition and create new economic opportunities, but also draw closer together as ASEAN. The World Economic Forum has also argued that while developing countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East are committed to energy transition and have vast renewable energy resources, we lack the finances and technical know-how to develop them fully. The UNFCCC has called for financial assistance from parties with more financial resources to those that are more vulnerable but less wealthy. This recognises that the capacity of countries to prevent and cope with the consequences of climate change vary enormously. Developing countries in particular require substantial financial support to undertake climate action. It is crucial for developed nations to fulfil their commitment to provide US$100 billion per year in climate finance as pledged under the UNFCCC. We have seen year in, year out in one corp after another where grand promises are made by developed countries about helping the developing world to transition, but where it comes to caching the check when we go to the bank, many developing countries have found that it's very difficult to cash the check. The need for equity must not be forgotten. According to ASEAN and considering the various different definitions across the different countries, there are more than 70 million micro, small and medium enterprises in the region, the MSMEs. This reportedly accounts for up to 99% of total establishments in member states as well as contributing 25% employment, 44.8% GDP and 18% of national exports. To me, the MSMEs are hence the frontliners not only for ASEAN's economy, but also in the journey towards climate action and energy transition. The government, including Malaysia, are of course assisting them in various ways. And yet many, I'm sure, may find the energy transition as well as sustainability demands very daunting. Unlike the big companies, they can't afford to hire chief sustainability officers. We must also make sure that the MSMEs will be able to make the energy transition. It will not be a just one without them. ASEAN ought to stand together on many things and this includes the need for just climate financing as I mentioned and indeed how weighty measures like ESG, climate action and energy transition are defined. This unity needs to be forged not just at the government to government level but also between civil society and business. We certainly hope to pursue this, especially at international forums like the upcoming COP28 in Dubai which will be a crucial landmark in the history of the Paris Agreement and where our delegation will be led by Minister Datuk Sri Anwar Ibrahim. Much of course can be said about this topic. The facts are clear. The science is clear. We need to make the economics work but fundamentally we need to have the political will and that's something that the task is on my shoulders and on the government's shoulders to deliver. We sometimes forget. The science is very clear. We can repeat the science again and again. We are feeling the effects now but often enough we lose the argument not because we do not have the facts or the science with us but we lose the argument simply because we are not able to tell a good story to convince the public. That is the challenge and I think that is a challenge not just for politicians but for any advocate who wants to convince that we need to do the change. At the end of the day what is needed is for governments, businesses, non-governmental organisations and all individuals to embark on a comprehensive transformation in our approach to sustainability. Indeed in the way we do work, we do business and we live. We should be forging linkages with our counterparts in ASEAN. The relationship must be consistently renewed and nourished rather than be taken for granted. Addressing climate change is not a responsibility limited to the present generation alone. I think as we've seen from the speech and presentation by Tan Sri Jeffritia, it extends to future generations as well. But if we can do the things that are certainly within our grasp in our lifetimes, we can give our children and their children a fighting chance to continue and even win the war. Thank you. Let me now welcome back to the stage for the second time in the last three... Oh, thanks to COVID there's been delayed. The COVID-delayed return of Dr. Rosemary Edelon from the Philippines. She is the Undersecretary of the Department of National Development and Planning. She's not only in charge of the formulation of the plan, she also takes responsibility in the implementation of the plan. So, Philippines continues in its tradition of inclusive management of having strong women in the right places. Thank you. Thank you very much, Professor Wu. And as mentioned by Professor Wu, this is actually my second time here. And it always gives me pleasure to be here because I've seen that video before, the picture of the Sunway, the before and after, and therefore it gives me hope that certainly transformation can happen. And just to correct, we're not in charge of implementation. We are in charge of monitoring. We are in charge of the policy reform agenda, of course, advocating for the reforms. And that is where I come in with respect to speaking about turning crisis into opportunities. But once again, thank you to the organizers for inviting me here to this very prestigious event. Of course, my greetings as well to Professor Jeffrey Sachs and to Professor Wu and I don't know if Dr. Jeffrey Chai is still here. But many, many thanks and I'm really happy to be in the same room with those who share our passion for sustainable development. So, first, well, proceeding to my talk, I would like to beg your indulgence for now because I want to be a bit more conceptual. I want to clarify certain conceptual issues first because I was actually a researcher before I joined government. So I always have that discipline of a researcher. I'm a statistician, turned econometrician, turned economist. So, first of all, let me just clarify the concepts of crisis and opportunities actually within the usual theory of change. So within the theory of change, we're familiar with that transition from inputs to outputs to outcomes to impact. Where does the crisis come in and where does the opportunity come in? So I would say that the crisis happens when a shock occurs and it affects many individuals and families who are unable to cope with the shock and resulting in undesirable outcomes. It's actually also the difference between a calamity and a disaster. So a calamity is a shock, usually a weather-related shock, but then when it results in grave damage or loss of lives and property, then it becomes classified as a disaster. And therefore, when it affects several families, several individuals who are unable to cope with the shock and when the state-sponsored intervention or social protection or assistance, as you may call it, are not adequate to respond to the shock, then you result the crisis results. So it becomes compounded and even protracted if the response is inadequate. Now it's also important to distinguish between changes and shocks because changes actually occur every time and everywhere. But the changes that matter, in the case of development, the changes that matter are those that affect the production function of the individual or the family. So meanwhile, and when I say production function, I mean the utility that is comprehensive. In the case of the Philippines, we would say it's really about achieving your ambition, the long-term ambition, which is for strongly-rooted, family and community ties, a comfortable lifestyle, a secure future. For those who know Filipino, it's matatag, maginghawa, panatag na buhai. So meanwhile, shocks are changes that are outside the norm. So they are not your usual change. In the case of the Philippines, as you know, we are visited by at least 20 cyclones a year, so that's within the norm. So if we get visited by less than that, like the El Niño, then that's a shock. Or if it's much more than that, then that's a shock. And if on a dress or beyond the coping mechanism, then this may greatly constrain the production capacity of individual, the family or society. And then that becomes the problem, that becomes the crisis. On the other hand, opportunities are considered external or probably peripheral to this system of the input-output outcome impact. But then we are able to internalize this external event or external development, and we can then transform this into another input. And so it goes back to that system. So for instance, a housing project can temporarily increase demand for ready-to-eat meals while the construction is ongoing. So there's that opportunity. But of course, turning this opportunity as internalizing them and then so that it goes back to the input-output, et cetera, this does not happen as a matter of course. There are so many other things that need to be there. Now the bigger challenge is turning these compounded undesirable outcomes or the crisis into an opportunity. It does not happen as a matter of course. Now crisis actually indicate a need for reforms but reforms are themselves shocks in the policy space, in the regulatory space. And like any shock, not many people want reforms. It disturbs the status quo. So there are lots of competing forces when you go for reforms. But when a crisis occurs, then stakeholders become aware that reforms may need to be done. And policy makers, first of all, will need to weigh the cost of undertaking the reforms versus the benefits. Of course, the benefits would largely depend on the likelihood that the shock will happen again or that this new thing, this crisis, will now define the new normal. So meaning that we really need to undertake the reform. But assuming that the reform is really warranted, the next thing to remember is that it's better to strike while the iron is hot because the support for change or for the reform will likely wane as the impact of the crisis also declines. So I would suggest three things. We have undertaken several reforms during my now 10 years in government. First, be clear as to the reform that is needed. Be strategic and always be able to bring it back to the way they would understand it, the way legislators would understand this theory of change from input to output, outcome to impact. Number two, again, the value proposition. You have to be prepared. You have to do your complete staff work with respect to the stakeholder mapping that's very, very important, the estimate of the costs and benefits of that reform, and then very important, engage stakeholders. If necessary, be ready to compensate the losers. So I also like one of the advice of minister when he said that you have to be ready to tell the story because, as they say in sales, remember, facts tell, but stories sell. So you really have to, you know, all those models. Professor Sachs, of course, Professor Sachs is also good at telling stories, and so we need that as well, especially for those in government. I'd like to share with you just three examples of this crisis turned into opportunities and then to reforms. First is the crisis of rice inflation that we had back in 2017. So for those of you who are not familiar with the history of rice in the Philippines, so of course, rice is a staple in the country. We love eating rice, breakfast, lunch, dinner. But we are 110 million people, and this 110 million people is scattered over 8,000 islands. We have 30 million hectares of land, about 10 million hectares of agricultural land, but again, scattered over 8,000 islands. And of course, we get visited by cyclones, et cetera, et cetera. And so we have very, very serious constraints with respect to being able to produce rice very efficiently. But the problem is rice is a political good in the case of the Philippines. So it still absorbs, the agriculture sector still absorbs the biggest chunk of employment, of course, next to services. But for agriculture, it's about 26% of employment. So at the time that there was this, and we were doing what we call quantitative restrictions in the case of rice trade. In 1994, when the Philippines exceeded to the WTO, we exempted rice and corn. But we asked for some time allowance, give us 20 years, 20 years to adjust to this. And then I think at the end of 10 years, we submitted corn, can be under this WTO regime, but not yet the rice. And so after the 20 years is up, we were still not ready to exceed the rice. And therefore, at the time, we asked for another extension, but that was with concession to so many countries. We had to pay so many countries in terms of concessionary trade agreements, et cetera, et cetera. So we were really very, very gung-ho. On undertaking this reform on rice trade, meaning just tariff by the rice, not do this quantitative restriction anymore. And at the time, it so happened that the official was, I think was new in public service. And so he would always announce, he would always announce that rice is dwindling, but that's actually just the stocks in his warehouse. So anyway, so it's been dwindling. And so the price, of course, escalated. And since it's only government that controls the imports of rice, and therefore it escalated some more, et cetera, et cetera. And this is when we were really, we really insisted that we need to go into this rice tarification. So again, the good thing is we have done our studies way, way back. We have done our value proposition. And so it was kind of difficult. You know, you have this rice price inflation. Why would you want to tariff by rice? So again, we had to get our storage trade, you know, that narrative that is really about liberalizing the trading. You need to make sure that you have that government that's not have monopoly over the rice trade, live it up to the market. You have many consumers, many producers. You know, it makes sense to have a liberalized trading regime. We can compensate the losers. The losers would be the rice farmers. First of all, we tariff by the rice. So we imposed a 35% tariff on the rice, the same with the AFTA. And then we make use of this revenues, the tariff revenues plough it back to the sector in terms of research and development, in terms of mechanization, you know, those things that will make the rice farms productive, more productive. It was still a long battle, but we were able to do it. So that was good. And that really helped us so that even during the crisis last year when, you know, we had this Russia, Ukraine war, et cetera, all this price crisis, rice inflation was just a 3%. So that was very good for us. My next example is the Philippine Action Plan for Sustainable Consumption and Production. We started working on this back in 2017, because when, so we had the start of the SDGs in 2016 and we did some of this, you know, the network analysis being espoused by the UN, UNDESA. And we saw that SDG 12 is the most connected to all the other SDGs. It's a pivotal SDG. And so we said, we need to have something, something very, very, you know, radical in terms of achieving or trying to achieve the sustainable consumption and production. So we came up with this PAP for us, SCP, Philippine Action Plan for Sustainable Consumption and Production. It's actually a very comprehensive action plan, beginning with institutionalization of the natural capital accounting, coming up with policy reforms, regulations as well to regulate, you know, to make sure that we have responsible consumption, responsible production, penalizing, of course, those who will be violating this, the infrastructure that's needed, the research agenda, as well as the education that is needed. We were done with it by mid-2019. We presented the draft to the legislators and then COVID came. So it had to take, you know, a back burner. We had to eradicate it to the back burner. But the thing is we know that it does something that we need to be done. And therefore, we had to, again, first be clear as to the reform that is needed. We know that that is the reform that's needed. But how do you advocate for this reform in the time of COVID? It was a health emergency. And so what we did was to take, you know, use as justification the fact that COVID, the coronavirus, is a zoonotic disease. And we said that it's really because of this, you know, the lines between the habitats, human habitats, animal, et cetera, have been blurred because of, you know, unsustainable, et cetera, et cetera. And so we needed this. And besides, we said that, you know, because of this COVID-19, we have seen proliferation of so many of these packaging products that use as sustainable materials. And this one will lead to, you know, greater pollution. And that will give rise to even more communicable diseases. And so, yes, so we were able to put in that PAP for SCP in the current Philippine Development Plan. And that was actually the first action plan that we launched after we launched the new PDP. So anyway, so just to give, just to say that for the third example, it's really a very comprehensive reform agenda that we now have under the Philippine Development Plan 2023 to 2028. But again, as before, we have done the studies before. And so we're very clear as to the value proposition. So right now we actually have a number of action plans already in place and we just need to make sure that we are able to form it in messages that are relevant at this time. So just to go back, that like I said, crisis, turning crisis into opportunities do not happen as a matter of course. There's many things that you need to be done. First, you have to be clear as to reform the reform that is needed. Be very strategic. Second, be clear also with respect to the value proposition. Do your complete staff work. And then of course engage the stakeholders, communicate the message clearly and be ready to compensate the losers. That's all. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Rosemary. Jeff Sachs. Good morning to friends. And it's wonderful to be back at Sunway. Thank you, Jeffrey Chia, for your leadership and for bringing us together. Minister, thank you for being here and undersecretary. Thank you for coming and all of the other distinguished participants in this very important meeting. I'm really thrilled how the work on ASEAN sustainable development is moving forward. This is really a dream for us in our global program and in the program here. ASEAN is an extremely important region globally and a region we love and your region so the chance to help think through some of the great challenges that this region faces in a world filled with the growing challenges is very gratifying, very exciting, and I think very promising as well. Let me say that of all social goals, of all the sustainable development goals, of all of the global objectives, there is nothing more important than education because education can solve all the other objectives and without education nothing will be solved. Our societies will not even hold together. We need to learn to think. We need to understand the complex realities that we're facing and that's why it's so wonderful to see how Sunway University is going from strength to strength and President Sibrandis, congratulations on all of the progress that is evident. This is a great, great accomplishment, Jeffrey, and I just want to applaud you for this. President Sibrandis and I were talking just before the meeting and he was telling me about his classical education in the Netherlands and I was very jealous because I did not have such an education where I learned six languages and ancient Greek and Latin when I was growing up in Detroit, Michigan but it reminded me of a concept that is extremely important in Western culture, in Western history, and we were just in Athens a couple of weeks ago discussing this and the word is paedia and the idea of paedia was an ancient Greek cultural concept that every citizen needed a proper education and that education needed to involve all of the disciplines and also moral education so there would be a curriculum that somebody growing up in Pericles, Athens in the 5th century B.C. would get that this would be the way to grow up to be a full human being and a full citizen. I think it's a wonderful concept that we need a curriculum for the 21st century for us to be global citizens. We need a 21st century paedia. We're trying to help build that and think through that at SDSN. I think it's one of the most important missions we could have. In the Sustainable Development Goals, SDG4 is quality education for everybody and in SDG4 is a target 4.7 that Geoffrey Chia and others are part of leading globally and that is not only the technical education but education for global citizenship, for appreciation of culture, for understanding cultural diversity, for understanding cultural history, and for understanding the challenges of sustainable development. And it seems to me that this is really one of the most important things we need to hurry on because the world's very complicated. It's very hard to understand actually. I'm now 68 and I've been trying to understand this world pretty much every day, I would say from my college days and I'm learning every day huge things that were just completely outside of my knowledge because there's a lot to fit together in this jigsaw puzzle. And I think that just to finish this thought that we really need to do everything we can to help young people today understand the world that they're going to face because it's hard and somehow we're not doing it and we're not using well even the new technologies that we have. I think all of our classrooms should be globally open somehow. Our students should be working together by Zoom across nations, across continents, talking with each other, learning from each other, doing joint homework assignments, somehow helping them to understand the interconnectedness of what we're facing because this I think is really essential. And I just want to commend Sunway University for taking this leadership role and for hosting SDSN Asia and for having outside the 17 sustainable development goals so that every student every day thinks about them and also on the walkway for saying keep going, keep going, and keep moving because I think that inspiration is absolutely essential. So we're in a mess globally and we're in a bigger mess than we were just a few years ago. I'd say no trends are going right right now in almost any dimension of global life. And the 2015 breakthroughs of the SDGs and the Paris Agreement are real breakthroughs but they haven't changed the trajectory of the world yet. And the world has been very difficult since 2015 on all counts. In geophysical terms, in the epidemic, which I'm going to just say I think was probably an accident of our scientists not a natural event and showing how fragile we are globally. It's been a very difficult eight years and now we're in a full scale war and the war is escalating and the two biggest powers in the world, China and the U.S. are at loggerheads with each other. And by the way just to show how ridiculous things are, Henry Kissinger and President Xi met yesterday and our White House said oh it's too bad that a private citizen could have these meetings and we don't have these contacts. The White House said that which is first of all weird but second if the White House would stop insulting China they could have those meetings too. Henry Kissinger has just been a lot more polite and the White House has been rude and so it's very strange times and a very strange world. Now we're hitting the highest temperatures probably in the last 125,000 years on the planet these days. And I just want to tell you that I headed an institute at Columbia University for 15 years called the Earth Institute and I had the terrifying job of having 300 climate scientists on my staff. And it's completely terrifying because they know what they're doing and they just told me every day from 2002 onward what was going to happen. And I have an especially terrifying colleague named James Hansen who many of you will know by name as the U.S. government's lead climate scientist for 30 years for NASA. He's a very soft-spoken gentleman. He's from the Midwest, from Iowa, I'm from Michigan so we're Midwesterners with our Midwestern twang accent. And he would come up to me just about every week for 20 years now and say Jeff it's worse than we thought. And one thing that I'll tell you he laid out to me in 2002 is just how this trajectory was going to go. I know it because I remember it reverberated, it shocked me from the beginning. And many years ago he said by now we are going to have these extraordinary breakthroughs in temperature because the scientists underneath all of this aren't waiting for the weather report day to day. They understand the underlying trends. And one of the things that as I think everyone knows from the newspaper accounts was happening was we have been warming year by year even through a La Nina phase of the Pacific. And the La Nina covers up the warming temporarily because it's cold waters in the Pacific. And Jim Hansen kept telling me for the last three years just wait when the La Nina ends and we switch to El Nino, wait to see what's going to happen. And that's exactly what's happening right now. And what he just sent to me a paper a couple of days ago, a new paper, just updating the estimates of climate sensitivity. And his estimate is that we've had at least a 50% acceleration in warming per decade after 2010 compared to with the pre-2010 that we're now warming at a rate of 0.27 degrees Celsius per decade. Meaning that we're going to hit 1.5 degrees within the next 10 years and probably within the next few years. And he's been telling me that for years. And he's been saying by the way which is interesting just to give you another flavor of it. He's not a great fan of the IPCC because he says the IPCC is the consensus report. And he's not a consensus scientist. He's a cutting edge scientist. So he's always telling me the IPCC is about 10 years behind where we really are and those things really are worse. The ice sheets are worse. The acceleration of the climate is worse. So every time the IPCC comes out with its shocking news and I say shocking news then he sends me an email, Jeff, no, no, this is much too moderate. It's worse than you think because they don't account for the last four years of studies because it's a consensus document and so forth. So we're really on a terrible, terrible trajectory. And everywhere we're traveling right now there's crisis because Sonya and I are traveling around the world to film a class to help high school students understand what's going on and everywhere there's deep crisis. We were in Athens two weeks ago, as I mentioned, we escaped just before the extreme heat wave came reaching 45 degrees C. Right now they had to close it down because it wasn't even safe to go there. Then the massive forest fires came about three days after we left and this is happening everywhere right now. And I had a very sad experience. I was asked to give a Zoom to a sixth grade class in Brooklyn, New York last week and I did. A friend of mine asked me to, it's his daughter's class so I gave a class to the sixth graders. They're all wearing masks not because of COVID but because of the Canadian forest fires because they couldn't breathe the air, the school was closed one day. And still we can't get our heads around this. You know in the U.S. there is no national political consensus on anything including this issue. None. We have no zero by 2050 and the administration says something but we have no national policies, no national vote in the Congress, no national framework because our political system is so corrupt that they will not vote for something outside of big coal and big oil. And so we have nothing. And then John Kerry goes to China and says you should accelerate what you're doing. And we're 15 tons per capita CO2. China's about nine. Of course we should accelerate but the United States lecturing to China, are you kidding? So this is really the drama. Let me say what's needed in my view for every region of the world but including ASEAN and I was very happy to hear the Secretary General, Dr. Kau Kim Horn speak and our minister speak very beautifully. The first thing that is needed is a plan. The first thing that's needed is a goal. The goal has to be to decarbonize no later than 2050. This is for sure. But the second thing that's needed is a plan to do that. This cannot be solved by market forces without a plan. It's impossible. It's far too complicated. It requires far too many public investments. It requires far too much legislative framework. It requires far too much coordination of agencies, of projects, of land use. This is not the markets are going to solve this. Private business is going to operate within a framework, a legal regulatory financial framework. But only the government can make the framework. And that requires a detailed plan. And it's not outlandish to have a detailed plan because 27 years to mid-century is not a very long time for public investment planning. And everything we're going to put in place by mid-century is basically already known now. Of course the technologies will continue to improve and so forth but fission, it's effusion, it's going to come. But in the second half of the 21st century, in the first half of the 21st century we have the technologies we have. They're going to get better. They're going to be, some are still in demonstration mode but they will be commercialized. But we have what we have and we have to move because otherwise we're going to face absolute loss of control because we're going to reach so many tipping points globally. Destruction of rainforests, ocean circulation collapse, collapse of ice sheets that it's going to be completely out of our control unless we act. So we have to act with what we have. And we need a plan for how to act. And that plan should be basically a public investment plan and a regulatory plan between now and mid-century. How this is going to get done and how much it's going to cost. The planning needs to take place and this is complicated at all scales. KL needs a plan. Sunway City needs a plan and it has a plan. But KL needs a plan. And Malaysia needs a plan. And ASEAN needs a plan. And they have to be interconnected and coherent with each other. And so it's like concentric circles. And that's a lot of planning and a lot of discussion and a lot of analysis that needs to be done. And these plans are very different from the nationally determined contributions which was basically a bad idea in my view, which I said at the time. But maybe it's the politician said we need that. We need to have something at our scale of the next five or ten years. So we actually do things. But the problem is a nationally determined contribution is something you do for three or four or five years. But the sum of those doesn't get you to 25 years. You have to start with the long term plan to even know what to do in the short term. And if you just do the short term, you do every low cost trick you can do without realizing that will put you into a dead end five or ten years from now because you're not doing the real long term things you need to do. So I would have dispensed with all of the short term stuff and said everybody's responsible for a long term low emission development strategy. That's the only thing I would have done. And in the Paris negotiations that's the only sentence I wanted in there. And it's sentence 4.19. And I just kept pressing put in one sentence for a long term low emissions development strategy. And that's really what is needed. Because you can't do this as a sum of short run improvisations. This is a long term problem. But even by the way 25 years is not long term. It's a blink of an eye. But it's a longer term than governments. So this has to be beyond governments. This has to be national strategy. And of course it needs to be spelled out in a way that Rosemarie said which is that people can understand it. If they can't understand it, it's useless. And one of the things economists get wrong is economists always talk about what tool to use. Should we have emissions trading? Should we have a permit? Should we have a carbon tax? No one understands it but it sounds bad. But what people do understand is we're going to have solar fields or wind fields or we're going to have a nuclear project or we're going to have this or we're going to have that. They understand a bit where their electricity comes from or we're going to be driving electric vehicles and we're going to be having charging stations or we're going to be importing hydro from this place. That people can understand. So we need that kind of narrative. But that narrative has to be based on an actual plan. And again in the United States we have nothing like that because our politicians are, I can't even use the right words because they're impolite. But I would say the process is so corrupt and the chairman of our Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee owns two coal mines. So go figure. And he's considered the consensus senator, Senator Joe Manchin. Well he is the consensus among a small corrupt elite. And that's why we're completely stuck. But I have a theory about change in the world which is eventually the United States will do the right thing when the other 192 UN member states do the right thing. So I'm trying to get all the other countries to do the right thing. And then the United States will finally figure out what to do. One basic point is you can't do decarbonization country by country. No country is big enough and self-contained enough to do this efficiently within its own borders. Of course it's technically feasible but the cost would be out of sight. So the way that ASEAN can afford this is by having a grid that is ASEAN-wide and even bigger than ASEAN. And this is really basic. And the minister mentioned that we're moving towards a power pool that is ASEAN-wide trading. This is extremely important. I think the right unit at a minimum for this region is the RCEP unit. RCEP is the 10 ASEAN countries plus China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. That's a great grouping for the energy transformation. Australia could add in a tremendous amount of renewable energy to this region because it's got a lot more sunshine than ASEAN does in general. ASEAN's got a lot more rainfall, a lot more tropical forests and Australia has a lot more desert. And a good submarine cable can carry a lot of those green electrons here at low cost. And so an integrated system makes a tremendous amount of sense. And so the regional challenge is fundamental. This is why the geopolitics is also crucial. There is no substitute for regional cooperation. There is no way in the world to do this without China, Japan, Korea, all cooperating closely together. This, of course, is again outside the U.S. playbook, which is to divide each region so that there's one side versus another side. And we have our military bases here and all the rest. This is the outmoded ancient Dividay at Impira principle. It will kill us all if we continue in this way. We need close neighbors need to cooperate with each other. It's the most basic principle in the world. All those ancient borders, clashes and so on mean nothing in the 21st century compared to the challenges that we face of having trans-border neighborly cooperation. They just don't mean anything compared to the real problems that we face. So for every country, I would say look to your left. Look to your right. Look ahead. Look behind you and cooperate with all of those. And if you're on a border where you're not cooperating, go send a delegation to start talking. Because otherwise, this is just impossible. And anyway, these ancient rivalries may be very different. Anyway, these ancient rivalries maybe made some understanding when we couldn't see the world as a whole. We weren't so crowded together. We didn't have technologies that made us completely interdependent. But this is completely outmoded now. So when you do the planning, do the planning regionally. Tell the US, just be nice. And if you're polite, you too can have an invitation to speak with President Xi. The last part that I want to mention is everything needs to be financed. This is an investment challenge. And nobody's current budget can pay for what needs to be done. Everything has to be done through finance. This is long-term investment that needs long-term financing. And the financing needs to be at scale. And it needs to be based on a plan. Because if it's not based on a plan, it's all too risky. If it's based on a plan, then it makes sense what's being financed and the risks can be managed appropriately. And so a lot of attention needs to be put on creating the right financing mechanisms and financing system. I think that ASEAN should explore creating an ASEAN Development Bank or Green Infrastructure Bank as part of this strategy. ASEAN has, you have institutions, of course, the Asian Development Bank which I think is a very good institution. The Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, the new bank that China created in the past decade, the new Development Bank based in Shanghai that's the BRICS Bank, that's all good. But I doubt that it's enough for ASEAN's needs. I think ASEAN needs 600 million people. It's the same population as Latin America. Latin America has two of its own Development Banks. It's got the Inter-American Development Bank and it's got the Latin American Development Fund or the CAF and those really help those countries to multiply their resources. And ASEAN has the challenge that about half the countries are credit worthy and the other half are not credit worthy. And so there's a big problem of making the interconnections in the countries that are not investment grade but they need to be integrated in the system. And there's a big problem about making all of the interconnections in general because that requires specialized finance and specialized institutions and creative financing. So I think creating something for ASEAN is feasible, would multiply the credit worthiness, would multiply the amount of financing available and should be looked at as one option to put on the table and something that I hope our work can do. The other point I would make is to use the really important initiatives of China, especially the Belt and Road Initiative, as a key part of solving this problem. The Belt and Road Initiative is, in my view, one of the most important and positive initiatives in the world and really very appropriate of China because China as a low-cost provider of large-scale infrastructure and a saving surplus economy naturally had a good reason for creating a large-scale regional financing program. And at the beginning, the quality of the investments were not very good because basically it was also part of China's statecraft that asked your partner what do you want and will finance it. And that led to a lot of pretty low-quality investments, I would say. And I think that the program is improving a lot right now because, first of all, if you go on investing low-quality projects, you'll end up with a lot of bad debt on your hands and China is just getting the first taste of that. And I think that that's sobering. So the idea that these investments ought to be good investments is becoming more salient in China's policymaking. But the second thing that happened, of course, was that many of the early investments were in coal plants or in fossil fuel-based technology. And China heard an earful, rightly, internationally every time I opened my mouth on the issue for many years, including for me and others, that this needs to be green and sustainable financing. The good thing about it is China is actually the low-cost producer of all zero-carbon technologies, period, whether it's photovoltaics, whether it's wind, whether it's long-distance, high-voltage direct current transmission systems, whether it's 5G and we're now moving to 5.5G and soon we'll be at 6G within the next six or seven years. China is a good partner for that and with plenty of production opportunities throughout ASEAN, also for a lot of industrialization at cutting-edge technologies. So I think that that's another very important part of the story, and I hope that the region really takes that on and takes that forward. The other point I would add is, of course, India will become more and more important and more and more breakthroughs in coming years. India is now the fastest-growing major economy in the world and is likely to remain so for the next decade at least, and it's based on very big steps forward, especially in digital platforms and in universal digital access, and that can be a big help as well and a big partnership in the ASEAN region. So all of this is to say, this is, we know, we've known a long time that Asia will determine the future of the planet in the 21st century. There's no doubt about this. And all signs point to the fact of remarkable potential progress, very rapid favorable change. I think the 2050 decarbonization is completely within reach, by the way, also of China and Indonesia. So I think that because the technological advances are coming so fast and the costs of the infrastructure are falling so rapidly. So all of this is to say this workshop is extremely timely. I'm very grateful to everybody participating and especially grateful to Sunway University for making it possible for us to get together. Thank you so much. This concludes the morning session. We now move on to the parallel sessions that are happening in the locations identified in your schedule. Thank you very much.