Southeast Asian countries face both direct and indirect vulnerabilities from climate change. Multiple threats to five sectors – agriculture and fisheries, conservation, energy, migration management, and health – prompt responses of governments and other stakeholders, often threatening the wellbeing of marginal populations. The chapter previews the general challenges and the issues specific to each sector.

The book’s insights require recognizing the strengths of lower-income people, though constrained and facing a wide variety of adaptation challenges. Because successful adaptations require government commitment, leaders must not evade their accountability to address problems of migration, land dispossession, and health risks. The weak healthcare effort, from medical services to vaccinations and nutrition, requires greater investment. Administrative effectiveness is important, but adaptation fairness is also crucial. No one should assume that people will be environmentally responsible when incomes are jeopardized without incentives to adjust their behavior. It is an additional challenge if vulnerable people must migrate apart from state resettlement programs. Tradeoffs across sectors pose challenges when efforts to address one sector’s threat undermine another. Addressing growing problems of energy shortages and fossil-fuel pollution cannot rely on solar and wind energy to avoid reliance on controversial hydro and nuclear power. High wealth concentration must be assessed in terms of both the risks and opportunities they present to sound adaptations. Southeast Asian countries’ advantages of strong connections within and beyond the region depend on geopolitical neutrality despite provocations.