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In reality, ASEAN, as of this moment, is the most vulnerable region to climate change due to marine pollution by their own members and other nations. Because of their self-inflicted damage, they now experience extreme weather changes, for example: the accelerated rising of climate temperatures. In turn, this causes forest fires, which causes transboundary haze (which is really just a fancy word for the smoke produced by burning/burnt wood), which then causes deforestation, causing some other global disaster.. you get the idea.

Not only do drastic weather changes cause drought, it causes the opposite: rain. We get faced with more frequent super typhoons and rising sea levels, which means more glaciers are melting because of the smoking hot temperatures, and since it's so hot, it ends up leading to more forest fires, then more melting glaciers because it's smoking hot, and the cycle repeats again until the clock of nature's patience ticks zero.

Okay, I exaggerated the ‘fighting really strong zombies with a toy hammer’ part. ASEAN's genuinely trying. But first, let's understand what ASEAN really is, then what they're doing to stop it.

As I mentioned earlier, ASEAN is composed of 10 southeast asian countries, consisting The Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia, The first 5 are the founding fathers of ASEAN, making and joining the association on the 8th of August, 1967. They are known for their diplomatic approach to problems, led by their motto: ‘one vision, one identity, one community’. In an era of war, they created this association because..

They wanted political security- this meant regional stability, with ASEAN being the architect of the political and security aspect of ASIA-pacific, conflict resolution with peaceful talks over full-blown wars, security cooperation by working together in the face of disaster. This is their ‘one community’ part of their motto.

They wanted economic safety- which meant transforming the region into one big market, with ASEAN as the main character. Economic safety also meant the safety of each member, meaning they're working toward a ‘greener’ future by opting for renewable energy rather than fossil fuels. This is their ‘one vision’ part of their motto.

Finally, they wanted a cultural oneness. Here, they strive to improve the quality of life for their members and the citizens of each country, working specifically TOGETHER to achieve SDG 13, which is the decrease of climate change and the likes. They also strive for the preservation of traditions and lost cultures. If you couldn't already tell, this is their ‘one identity’ part of their motto.

Yeah yeah, I know what you're thinking, “that's great and all, but our march toward a bright future where the sun explodes in our faces isn't going anywhere despite all of the work I say they're doing. Who do I blame? Who's the leader?”

Well, they change leaders every year, and right now it's The Philippines. This is so that each member of ASEAN gets to focus on their individual needs for the year, making sure that everyone gets progress on developing their own country.

“I DON’T CARE!! WE'RE STILL ALL GONNA BURN UP IN FLAMES. WHAT ARE THEY EVEN DOING?!?!!?”

OKAY OKAY CHILL I'LL EXPLAIN THE WORK THEY'VE BEEN PUTTING IN.

Actually, it's not that easy because all of the work that the countries have been putting into what they have achieved already, which is really not much, is purely voluntary! If they choose not to follow the rules, you can't really penalize them for not following it. Besides, the lack of an official leader often makes making decisions hard or very slow-moving, or just inefficient because the final result is so watered down to appease everyone that it doesn't even solve the actual problem!

Despite the hurdles they've faced, they've overcome it with finesse. Just kidding, they're still trying to, but so far, it's kind of going smoothly. Emphasis on kind of.

Here's the story of how ASEAN plans to solve the world-wide problem: environmental issues, you big baby.

It all starts with a man called ‘communication’, and his wife, ‘unified strategy’. They want to have at least two children: ‘achieved unified strategy’ and ‘adapting’. His family is called ASEAN, with multiple relatives who are other countries.

Communication and unified strategy have a common enemy who keeps trying to make life harder for them: environmental issues. Environmental issues is some really hot guy because he's always 15 Celsius when he should be 14 Celsius. He's that toxic ex who keeps showing up at 3:00 AM with a forest fire and a 'im doing this cuz i love you baby' text, and ASEAN is too polite to block his number because of 'non-interference' rules.

To kill environmental issues, they need their children: ‘achieved unified strategy’ and ‘adapting’ because communication and unified strategy can't really do anything on their own. To raise their children properly, they need money. However, they're broke as hell and need financial support, which amounts to a total of 1.5 trillion dollars.

Despite not having enough financial support, this is what they are still trying to do:

Adapting will make sure that people who work for environmental issues will not be left behind when he and his sister, achieve a unified strategy, kill environmental issues. This is because, while the workers for environmental issues, who happen to be factory workers, make their goal of killing environmental issues harder because they keep him alive, adapting knows that the factory workers are just trying to keep themselves alive and feed their own families. Additionally, adapting tries to protect lands from the destruction of The Big Battle, where he and his family end environmental issues for good.

Achieved Unified Strategy will make power grids so that everyone (other countries) can share clean energy, causing carbon neutrality, where carbon dioxide released by factory workers is slowly lessened, which Environmental Issues hates, because he knows it will be what ends him, little by little. Achieved Unified Strategy also encourages other countries’ and their relatives to do the little things that make a big impact: recycling, turning off electrical appliances when not in use, not using too much water, opting for cleaner Energy rather than fossil fuels (like using inverter aircons)... etc. It's something you can do too!

To support this cause, ASEAN has chosen a market-based framework over voluntary cooperation. Additionally, because of the extreme weather changes caused by environmental issues, the family created a plan called ACCF (asean common carbon framework) and another plan called AATHP, which uses money to force compliance among the countries (asean Agreement Transboundary Haze Pollution), which meant stricter rules on emissions and gas industries. The countries in ASEAN are supposed to follow this plan, however, it was never going to be so easy. Because their ‘following rules’ are still largely voluntary despite what I earlier stated, ASEAN members aren't following this plan. They're afraid of what might happen if they have to penalize themselves and others for not following the rules, so they just gave up and didn't, similar to how I am giving up on writing this.

I would love to say that this is all working effectively, but the progress made is so slow that the apocalypse is coming to us first.

To actually achieve such a goal of killing environmental issues, what they need is their financial support of 1.5 trillion Dollars. Will you, dear reader, support this struggling families' cause?

Notes:

-the voluntary compliance of ASEAN is known as soft law

-The Development Dilemma: Countries like Vietnam and Indonesia are trying to pull millions out of poverty. To do that, they need cheap energy. Right now, coal is cheap. Asking them to switch to expensive renewables is like asking someone to buy a Tesla when they can barely afford a bicycle.

-The Carbon Framework (ACCF): This is the attempt to turn "saving the planet" into a business. If Indonesia preserves a forest, Singaporean companies "buy" that air to offset their pollution. It’s a way to get the $1.5 trillion from private companies instead of waiting for government handouts.

-ASEAN members are responsible for over half of the world's land-based plastic leaks into the ocean

- motto is basically: we're all in the same fleet and we have our own boats. Dont tell me how to row mine, bitch