Reading ASEAN’s Sentiments in a Year of Crosswinds
Joanne Lin|Jasmine Yeo
Joanne Lin and Jasmine Yeo show how insights from two major regional surveys in 2025 capture the forces shaping ASEAN’s confidence in a year of shifting global winds.

Joanne Lin|Jasmine Yeo
Joanne Lin and Jasmine Yeo show how insights from two major regional surveys in 2025 capture the forces shaping ASEAN’s confidence in a year of shifting global winds.
Muyi Yang|Xiwei Xu|David Lo
Booming growth in data centres is escalating electricity demand and risks undermining the region’s energy transition goals. Hardware improvements are insufficient; Southeast Asia must also promote energy-efficient AI software.
Gauri Sasitharan
Gauri Sasitharan argues that, in the absence of strong legal protections for mangrove and peatland conservation in ASEAN, grassroots communities are emerging as the region’s most important stewards of these ecosystems.
Sara Loo
Malaysia’s ambitions to be a digital powerhouse demand urgent consideration of rapidly increasing energy demands. Based on current figures, Malaysia appears to have overcommitted to data centre expansion, especially in Johor, without sufficiently robust sustainability guidelines in place.
Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad
Fulcrum editor Lee Hwok Aun converses with Minister Nik Nazmi about the urgent challenges of sustainability and climate change from Malaysian and ASEAN perspectives. Recorded on 28 April 2025.
Muyi Yang|Christopher Wright
Amid growing geopolitical rivalry and rising protectionism, a network of net-zero industrial parks could act as the Asia-Pacific’s transition landing zones into a greener future.
Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Openg
Mindful of the pressing challenge of climate change, Sarawak is leveraging its resource richness and cultural diversity to foster a low-carbon, climate-resilient, and inclusive future.
Damon Chee
Damon Chee explores the growing demand for sustainable fashion and the hurdles preventing it from becoming a viable alternative to fast fashion in Southeast Asia.
Christopher Len
As the frontrunner for green hydrogen projects in Southeast Asia, Sarawak’s success or failure in the next two years will serve as a bellwether for Malaysia’s hydrogen economy goals, ASEAN’s hydrogen future and global clean hydrogen demand.
Melinda Martinus
JETP implementation in Vietnam and Indonesia faces challenges such as significant financing gaps, criticisms regarding the attractiveness of financing packages, difficulties in aligning donor and recipient countries’ expectations, the complex political-economic landscape of the coal industry, and concerns over the social impacts of energy transitions.