Australia is ambitious for what we can achieve together with the region on climate change and the energy transition.
Southeast Asia faces rising sea levels, heat waves, floods, droughts and increasingly intense and unpredictable weather events and natural hazards. Climate change and disasters are exacerbating pre-existing vulnerabilities and have the potential to affect populations at scale, reversing development gains and requiring significant recovery efforts. The region is also a driving force behind global energy trends, with implications for energy security, affordability and greenhouse gas emissions.
Addressing climate change and the clean energy transition is a key component of Australia's diplomatic, economic and development relationships in Southeast Asia. For example, Australia's Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) with Vietnam finalised in 2024 included a pillar on strengthening climate, environment and energy cooperation and environment. In August 2026, Australian and Vietnamese leaders welcomed progress in deepening the CSP and agreed to continue strengthening cooperation in environmental protection, address climate change, and emissions reductions towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and international climate commitments.
Experts from Cambodia's Royal University of Agriculture met with farmers in Laos' Champasak Province to learn firsthand about the impacts of climate change and challenges to building resilient livelihoods. Credit: DFAT
Our commitments include $650 million Australia-Indonesia Climate and Infrastructure Partnership (KINETIK), to support Indonesia to deliver sustainable infrastructure and drive green economic growth climate change resilience through the Mekong Australia Partnership , delivering on the Singapore-Australia Green Economy Agreement and working with ASEAN through a $6.9 million energy cooperation package announced by the Prime Minister at the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in 2024.
We help accelerate the region's clean energy transition through sharing Australian energy policy, regulation, system planning and management expertise, assisting the region to develop clean energy supply chains, and supporting ASEAN priorities such as the ASEAN Power Grid.
Australia is working with our partners in the region to unlock green trade and investment, a priority for Invested: Australia's Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040. For example, the landmark Singapore-Australia Green Economy Agreement supports Australia's economic, trade, investment, and climate change objectives while building on our substantial bilateral relationship with Singapore.
We help Southeast Asia partners attract quality finance, including from Australia, to support the region's significant climate and clean energy financing needs. For example, through a portfolio of blended finance mechanisms, including Australian Development Investments (ADI), Australian Climate Finance Partnership and the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), we are mobilising Australian investors into Southeast Asia by derisking innovative financial structures that support climate mitigation and adaptation, and gender lens investing.
The first investment under Australia's non-ODA $2 billion Southeast Asia Investment Financing Facility was a $77 million investment in Singapore's Financing Asia's Transition Partnership (FAST-P), complemented by a further $100 million through Export Finance Australia. Through FAST-P, capital is being deployed for clean energy projects across the region, including hydropower in Indonesia, solar and battery storage in the Philippines, and other renewable projects across the region.