ClientEarth Joins Regional Effort Tackling Climate Change and Corporate Power in Southeast Asia’s Agri-Food Sector

Across Southeast Asia, the broad impact of climate change is affecting critical resources, including food, water, health, and rural livelihoods. Industrial agri-food expansion, driven by rapid urbanisation, population growth, and increased food demand, is affecting small farmers, fishers, indigenous peoples, migrants, and rural communities, with corporate concentration shrinking community control over food.

Despite excellent support from corporations and the government in promoting green growth and climate-smart agriculture, there is still a question of whether these market-driven solutions address inequalities, land rights, food sovereignty, labour, and democracy. To address these, cross-border cooperation with various communities, including media networks, is necessary.

In response, a Regional Workshop on Climate Change, Corporate Power, and Agri-Food Systems in Southeast Asia was held in Bangkok on 22-24 June 2026. This three-day workshop was co-organised by Foodthink and Towards Organic Asia, supported by EarthCare Foundation.

The workshop brought together participants including civil society, researchers, journalists, farmers, and grassroots groups from China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, and aimed to establish a long-term regional platform that connects civil society actors and fosters dialogue on climate justice, agroecology, community resilience, and sustainable agri-food systems in Southeast Asia.

ClientEarth is proud to support this ongoing effort and contribute to the discussion in strengthening the collaboration among participants. ClientEarth Asia’s Hannah Chan, Philippines-based Senior Lawyer, Resource, Energy, Mobility (REM) Japan and Southeast Asia, and Azam Hawari, Indonesian-based Lawyer, Food, Oceans, Land Use (FOLU) Japan and Southeast Asia, were present to share their insights on the first day of the workshop. 

Hannah kicked off with a regional overview of greenwashing across ASEAN, covering relevant legal frameworks and recent case developments in the Philippines and Indonesia. Her session referenced two ClientEarth resources: Greenwashing and how to avoid it: An introductory guide for Asia’s finance industry and Guardrails to address greenwashing of climate transition finance. Azam then followed with a session on Corporate Concentration in the Food System and its Impact on Climate, introducing the ASEAN Guiding Principles for Effective Social Forestry Legal Frameworks as a tool to strengthen legal safeguards in the region.

Dialogue forums like this mark an important step toward building lasting regional solidarity. ClientEarth looks forward to working alongside civil society, legal practitioners, and grassroots communities across the region to secure a fairer, more climate-resilient future for Southeast Asia’s agri-food systems.