Talent and sustainability to power Asean’s future
If sustainability defines what Asean must achieve, talent defines how it can be achieved
AS ASEAN exporters prepare their first reports under the European Union’s new carbon tariff framework, reality is setting in: Our region’s trade competitiveness is now tied to sustainability metrics we had little say in creating. This shift forces Asean to confront a central dilemma. Do we remain shaped by external forces, or do we lead with our own vision of sustainable and inclusive growth?
At the heart of that choice lies our greatest asset – the talent that can turn complexity into opportunity. But talent needs an enabling environment, one where systems and standards empower Asean to shape its future, not simply respond to others.
Trade shaped by sustainability
Trade has always been Asean’s lifeblood. The region hosts the world’s third-largest labour force and is projected to become the fourth-largest economy by 2030, but growth on its own does not guarantee competitiveness.
Today, trade is shaped not just by cost or efficiency but by trust, transparency and sustainability. Mechanisms such as the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment show that markets are judged as much by climate alignment as by output.
Three Asean countries already rank among the world’s 10 most vulnerable to climate disasters, according to the WorldRiskIndex 2024. Case in point: When the Philippines was struck by Typhoon Goni in 2020, supply chains for electronics and agricultural exports were severely disrupted, offering a stark reminder that climate volatility directly undermines trade resilience. For us, climate risk is not theoretical; it is existential.
Recent recommendations developed with the Asean Business Advisory Council (Asean Bac) emphasise the importance of aligning regional reporting frameworks with international standards such as those of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).
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Already, 85 per cent of Asean’s gross domestic product is signalling alignment. Singapore has introduced mandatory climate disclosures for listed companies, while Malaysia is progressing towards adopting ISSB-based requirements by 2025. Despite the recent deference of mandatory reporting of ISSB-based climate-related disclosures and Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions disclosure, the regulatory direction remains: Climate-reporting disclosures are an integral part of financial reporting.
While these are encouraging steps, frameworks are a means, not an end. They must drive investment, competitiveness and resilience or risk becoming box-ticking exercises. Finance professionals sit at the heart of this transformation, translating ambition into credible and measurable outcomes. They can ensure that disclosure delivers impact by linking climate risks to financial resilience and turning environmental, social, and governance reporting into a lever for trade advantage.
The talent challenge
If sustainability defines what Asean must achieve, talent defines how it can be achieved. Yet the talent equation in the Asia-Pacific is shifting in ways we cannot ignore. While the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants’ (ACCA) Global Talent Trends 2025 report shows that younger professionals are eager to pursue sustainability roles, many still see them as reserved for senior leaders.
With many aspiring to move abroad or to other markets for higher pay and broader opportunities, the pipeline for sustainability talent may weaken. This risk is heightened by the fact that skilled professionals are increasingly drawn to opportunities abroad, contributing to a talent outflow that leaves many Asean economies struggling to build domestic capacity.
This echoes LinkedIn’s Global Green Skills Report 2024, which warns that demand for green talent is growing twice as fast as supply, with Singapore among the top markets for green-skills demand growth. Yet only one in 20 Gen Z workers globally currently possess green skills, despite 61 per cent expressing interest in green jobs.
Crucially, green skills are not limited to engineering or renewable energy. In finance and accountancy, they include carbon accounting, sustainability assurance, integrated reporting and scenario analysis for climate risk.
These are areas where the next generation of green talent can make a decisive difference, but only if investment in upskilling keeps pace. If Asean fails to re-engineer its talent proposition, offering flexibility, inclusion and future-ready skills, it will fail to anchor the very workforce that is supposed to power its rise.
A louder Asean voice
Trade shaped by sustainability, and talent shaped by opportunity, are not separate conversations. They are the same. Without credible climate leadership, Asean risks trade marginalisation. Without empowered people, the region cannot deliver that climate leadership.
Asean’s economic weight is growing but our presence in global standard-setting remains limited. That must change. Asean should move decisively to establish a regional advisory group on interpreting ISSB standards, to align approaches, address transition relief, unify cross-border data, and ensure Asean perspectives are embedded in implementation guidance. Asean finance ministries and business councils should also coordinate more actively in global forums, presenting collective positions on sustainability reporting.
We are advancing this agenda through the Asean Business Advisory Council’s Sustainability Reporting Advocacy Collaborative, which channels business expertise into harmonised standards, proportionality, and practical compliance.
Last Friday (Sep 12), at the Singapore Institute of Directors’ conference, Ravi Menon, Singapore’s first ambassador for climate action and senior adviser to the National Climate Change Secretariat at the Prime Minister’s Office, raised our collective consciousness. He reminded us that the direction of travel remains unchanged, only the pace has shifted and he drew the vital line between value and values.
For Asean, this distinction matters: Decarbonisation is not a compliance burden but a resilience dividend and a declaration of who we are as a region. Asean’s collective voice must now carry that conviction into global forums.
Our Asean realities cannot be ignored
Rising seas. Fragmented supply chains. Young professionals restless for opportunity cannot be an afterthought in frameworks designed elsewhere, they are the lived realities of Asean. To ignore them is to weaken not just our economies but the resilience of the global system itself. Asean must claim its voice, not just for itself but for the resilience of the global economy.
For nearly nine decades, ACCA has witnessed Asean’s evolution, its resilience, re-invention, and ambition. As Malaysia chairs Asean in 2025, the opportunity is clear: Harmonise standards, invest in talent and shape influence in line with our true weight.
While the EU and US are hard-wiring sustainability into trade frameworks, Asean risks being confined to the role of standards-taker unless it asserts its influence now.
The writer is director, Asia-Pacific, at ACCA
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