Southeast Asian governments should focus on the interests of their own people, rather than on how Washington or Beijing might respond to their climate and energy policies, former United States vice-president Al Gore and Nobel Peace Prize winner has said.
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“The best interest of their people is obviously served by speeding up this transition,” Gore told Eco-Business in a media interview in Singapore last week.
His remarks comes as the United States retreats from international climate leadership under President Donald Trump, who withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change for the second time. In contrast, Gore said he was optimistic that China might play a larger role in global climate diplomacy; the country has in the past decade built a dominance in the manufacturing of clean energy technologies such as solar, wind and battery storage.
Gore noted that the past two years of geopolitical uncertainty had been “turbulent”, but argued that the wider energy transition was not merely surviving the upheaval, but accelerating because of hard economics, energy security concerns and the worsening impacts of climate change.
‘Schizophrenic’ US climate policy
Asked by Eco-Business how Southeast Asian nations should navigate a widening US-China rivalry that is fracturing the old world order and disrupting energy supply chains, Gore said the US unfortunately has been “presenting almost a schizophrenic face to the world”.
“With Obama, and then Trump, and then Biden, and then back to Trump… [this oscillation] correlates with a posture of advocacy and leadership on the one hand, and then fossil fuel advocacy on the other,” he observed.
Recalling an event when the Trump told a room of fossil fuel executives during his campaign that he would do “whatever you want” in exchange for a billion dollars in donations, Gore said called this out as “corrupt and shameful”, along with Trump’s repeated claims that the climate crisis is a hoax.
But despite Trump’s efforts to derail the energy transition, renewables accounted for 92 per cent of all new US electricity generation capacity installed last year, including rooftop solar. That momentum has continued despite the administration’s cancellation of offshore wind projects and what Gore described as efforts to slow the deployment of clean energy.
“The economic realities are prevailing in the US,” Gore said. “In the diplomatic sphere … Trump has neutered the ability of the US to provide leadership and has done his best to try to slow down the transition… But he is a bit like the famous ancient king from Denmark, King Canute, who tried to stop the tides.”
China weighs a larger role
Gore said China was “in a state of transition” and pointed to two recent developments that had made him optimistic about Beijing’s potential role in global climate action.
The first is a shift away from what he described as China’s historic reluctance to use its diplomatic influence to push the international climate agenda, and the second is the country’s reported interest in hosting COP33, the United Nations climate summit scheduled for 2028.
China is considering a possible bid, but no decision has been made, with discussions at an early stage. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat has not received a formal nomination from the Asia Pacific regional group.
“If China does indeed seek to host COP33, it will certainly be invited to do so,” Gore said. “And if it does do so, it will do what China always does – it plans its work and works its plan.”
Gore said a Chinese-hosted COP could create an opportunity for Beijing to demonstrate greater leadership on climate and potentially revive cooperation with Washington in the future.
He recalled the role of US-China cooperation in helping to deliver the Paris Agreement, as well as his longstanding relationships with Chinese officials, including veteran climate negotiator Xie Zhenhua. In the late 1990s, Gore also co-chaired the US-China Forum on Environment and Development with then-premier Zhu Rongji.
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If China does indeed seek to host COP33, it will certainly be invited to do so… And if it does do so, it will do what China always does – it plans its work and works its plan.
China’s continued construction of coal fired power plants remains a major concern, and Gore attributed part of the build-out to droughts that have reduced hydropower output in some regions, as well as to local officials’ concerns about power shortages, unemployment and social instability.
“China’s perhaps the only country in the world that would build new plants knowing that they would have less than a 50 per cent utilisation rate,” Gore said, describing the approach as reflecting a philosophy different from one based purely on market efficiency.
At the same time, China’s clean energy deployment is taking place at extraordinary speed. The country added about 14.1 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity in July, equivalent to bringing roughly one 1GW power plant online every 2.2 days, according to figures from China’s National Energy Administration.
China’s position as the leading manufacturer of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and other clean energy technologies, he said, gives it significant influence over the next phase of the global energy transition.
Gore also cited data from Climate TRACE – an independent, non-profit coalition that tracks greenhouse gas emissions – which indicated that China’s emissions were beginning to decline. Separately, research by the Green Finance and Development Center found that green energy accounted for 56 per cent of China’s overseas energy engagement in the first half of 2026, with green energy investment reaching about US$20.1 billion.
Companies retreat into ‘green hushing’
Gore said the political backlash against climate action triggered by Trump was also changing how companies communicate about sustainability.
He pointed to BlackRock, which several years ago presented itself as a leading advocate of sustainable investing before softening its position after pension funds in oil-producing US states threatened to withdraw capital.
The world’s largest asset manager later faced investment losses from European investors that, Gore said, exceeded the amounts originally threatened by the US funds.
He also noted that more companies are practicing “green hushing” – where they continue working on sustainability but deliberately avoid publicising those efforts – a contrast from greenwashing, in which companies exaggerate or misrepresent their environmental performance.
“Trump has, if nothing else, polarised the issue and encouraged the practice of green hushing on the part of companies that want to do the right thing,” Gore said.
Energy security is a transition argument
Former US vice president Al Gore delivering the opening lecture at the Climate Reality Project training programme in Singapore on 8 September. Image: Eco-Business
Gore said Southeast Asian governments and businesses should resist any backsliding of commitments, and listed three reasons why they should accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels.
The first was the security risk exposed by conflict and disruption to oil and gas supply chains. He cited the war in Iran pushing oil prices close to US$100 a barrel and reducing shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to among the lowest levels since the conflict began.
The second was the continued decline in the cost of solar, wind and battery storage. The third was the growing physical risk from climate change, which Gore called “the most powerful advocate of all”.
He cited as examples the deadly glacial lake outburst flood in Nepal the previous week which resulted in more than 1,300 deaths and over 5,000 still missing; and a near-miss in Alaska’s Glacier Bay a year earlier, when a 500-metre glacial outburst occurred shortly before cruise ships carrying thousands of passengers were due to enter the area.
“My point is that Mother Nature is persuading more and more people every day that it is ridiculous for us to slow down this transition, no matter the political power of the fossil fuel polluters,” he said.
Gore cited figures showing the region is already making progress in the transition, with strong growth in renewable energy investment in Southeast Asia up by 51 per cent year on year, with investment rising 352 per cent in Vietnam, 88 per cent in Malaysia and 28 per cent in the Philippines. He cited estimated figures that put renewable energy investment at more than 2.5 times that of investment in fossil fuel power plants.
“Has it slowed down somewhat? Yes, I guess you could measure some indices that show that,” Gore said. “But slowing down from an already rapid pace.”
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My point is that Mother Nature is persuading more and more people every day that it is ridiculous for us to slow down this transition, no matter the political power of the fossil fuel polluters.
Singapore as a model of execution
Gore cited Singapore’s strong climate and public policy leadership as an example for the region, noting that Singapore was the first country in the world to introduce congestion pricing and among the first to establish a carbon price.
“I have tremendous respect for the leadership of Singapore and for their commitment to meet their 2050 goal to achieve net zero…. I actually have no doubt that they will do so, because Singapore accomplishes what it sets out to do,” he added.
The Climate Reality Project – a non-profit founded by Gore 20 years ago – held a two-day leadership training in Singapore on 8 and 9 September, bringing together about 800 sustainability professionals, students and climate activists from across the region. It was co-located with AT ONE IMPACT WEEK 2026, organised by TPC Group and No. 17 Foundation.
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We have to mitigate what we cannot adapt to, and we have to adapt to what we cannot mitigate… But if we do not mitigate successfully, we would soon reach a point where it is impossible to adapt.
While recognising the growing calls for governments to focus more on adaptation needs, Gore rejected the argument that countries should shift resources away from emissions reduction because the world has already exceeded, or is close to exceeding, the 1.5°C warming threshold.
“We have a moral responsibility to pursue both adaptation and mitigation,” he said.
Scientists have warned that an adaptation-only strategy would eventually create conditions that societies could not adapt to, he argued, including large scale displacement, cross border migration and disruption to ocean and atmospheric circulation systems.
“We have to mitigate what we cannot adapt to, and we have to adapt to what we cannot mitigate,” Gore said. “But if we do not mitigate successfully, we would soon reach a point where it is impossible to adapt.”
He said global warming would stop “almost immediately” if the world reached net zero, with a lag of roughly three to five years. “And if we stay at net zero, 50 per cent of the human-generated emissions will have fallen back out of the atmosphere (in as little as 30 years). Some of it will linger for a long time,” he added.
Gore also pointed to the falling cost and rising speed of solar deployment as a reason for optimism – solar costs have fallen to 0.09 cents per watt and the time required to install 1GW of solar capacity had declined from about a year two decades ago to less than 13 hours today.
Citing the recent solar boom in Pakistan, Gore noted that solar panels and an inverter have replaced livestock as a traditional wedding dowry in some communities. “Instead of goats, it’s three panels and an inverter,” Gore said. “Now, that’s quite a courtship ritual.”
