Climate adaptation in Southeast Asia must be treated as an economy-wide investment opportunity rather than a cost, as the region faces a widening gap between the money needed to prepare for climate impacts and the capital currently flowing into resilience. Vrkić, who has held senior diplomatic and advisory roles across the Asia-Pacific for decades, cited the latest data showing that only 17 per cent of global climate finance is directed to adaptation. Of that amount, just 2 per cent of tracked adaptation finance comes from the private sector. “It is easier to say we are reducing greenhouse gas emissions by driving an electric vehicle or by putting solar panels on a roof, than we are from investment in adaptation projects [such as] flood defenses, paved roads. “Climate adaptation is economic investment, not a cost,” he added.