Promoting Environmental Taxes in ASEAN Countries
Image credit: ADB.
An ongoing regional study informs capacity-building policy workshops on environmental tax reforms.
Under the ASEAN Climate Finance Policy Platform, ADB delivered a series of capacity-building sessions with ASEAN Member States through the ASEAN Forum on Taxation and its Sub-Forum on Excise Tax. The sessions were aligned with an ongoing ADB-supported regional study, “Accelerating Climate Transitions through Green Finance in Southeast Asia—Conducting Research and Developing a Report on the State of Environmental Tax Policies in Southeast Asia.”
The most recent was on 12 March 2026 on the sidelines of the Working Group on the ASEAN Forum on Taxation and ASEAN Sub-Forum on Excise Taxation meetings in Manila, Philippines. ADB convened a more in-depth, country-driven capacity-building session focused on reform pathways and implementation. The session translated the study’s emerging insights into practical dialogue—enabling countries to reflect on national experiences, discuss reform sequencing and political economy challenges, and identify opportunities for ASEAN-level cooperation and peer learning.
At the ASEAN Forum on Taxation last year in Penang, Malaysia, ADB conducted an expert-led session on 29 to 30 October to present initial findings from the study “Accelerating Green Economy Transformation through Environmental Taxes in Southeast Asian countries.” The session strengthened technical understanding of environmental tax design, highlighted regional and international best practices, and unpacked key issues, such as fossil fuel subsidies, revenue use, and policy coherence. It also served as an initial platform for peer exchange and feedback on the study’s analytical direction.
Together, these engagements reflect a progression from analytical grounding (2025) to applied policy dialogue (2026)—with both directly supporting and informed by the regional study. The study itself serves as a foundational knowledge product to help countries design effective environmental taxes, address fossil fuel subsidy leakages, strengthen policy coherence, and mobilize revenues to support climate-resilient and low-carbon transitions across Southeast Asia.
