In Southeast Asia, environmental, labour and human rights (broadly ‘green’) questions have been met by rising scepticism and worry about trade protectionism, just when the region’s record of containing deforestation and its “green premiums” or profits from stricter (Western) criteria exports have never been better. Drawing on fifteen years of observations while embedded with value-chains, this paper provides an analysis of key drivers and contexts informing forecasting for selected sustainable products from Southeast Asia: the ubiquitous palm oil (claimed to be in half of many supermarket products), natural rubber (used in gloves and tires), and solar panels. Beyond traditional supply-and-demand factors, the paper examines how oligopolies, oligarchies, and opinions impact the outlook. A hot topic is the EU’s regulatory push for smallholder-farmer inclusive supplies that are free of deforestation. How are Southeast Asians responding? Let’s consider why Indonesian tycoons and Thailand’s smallholders may be in pole position, how market share relates to market reputation and the impact of US-China trade war issues. The paper also touches on the latest observations on ‘green’ chemicals and ‘green’ data centres in Malaysia, China’s ‘green’ (or not) BRI supply chains in Indonesia, and why China might desire certifications for a spiky stinky fruit.
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Speaker and Chair Biographies:
Yu-Leng Khor is a commercial economist focussed on tropical agribusiness, commodities, critical minerals and renewable energy. Trained as a political economist at Oxford University and the London School of Economics, she has analysed industries and markets for over twenty years, having started her career in Southeast Asian banking during the apogee of the “Asian Tigers” era. She has authored reports on sustainability for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the European Commission, recently presenting at Yale University and NYU, and participating in Chatham House discussions. She has published two studies on Malaysia rural political sentiment and has upcoming book chapters on the #milkteaalliance and on Thai palm oil and its governance. Yu-Leng is a past associate of the Institute of China Studies at University of Malaya and the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, and currently Associate Director (Sustainability) at the Singapore Institute for International Affairs. She has also been an independent director at a few companies (profit and non-profit).
Prof. John Sidel is Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre, and the Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Professor Sidel received his BA and MA from Yale University and his PhD from Cornell University. He is the author of Capital, Coercion, and Crime: Bossism in the Philippines (1999), Philippine Politics and Society in the Twentieth Century: Colonial Legacies, Postcolonial Trajectories (2000), Riots, Pogroms, Jihad: Religious Violence in Indonesia (2006), The Islamist Threat in Southeast Asia: A Reassessment (2007), Thinking and Working Politically in Development: Coalitions for Change in the Philippines (2020, with Jaime Faustino) and Republicanism, Communism, Islam: Cosmopolitan Origins of Revolution in Southeast Asia (2021).
Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash