Ecobiz.asia – Southeast Asian climate advocates have urged the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to support a new economic model that prioritizes ecosystem restoration, community resilience and shared prosperity over resource extraction.
An open letter issued by the Bangkok Climate Action Week (BKKCAW) community on Monday (Oct. 12, 2026) calls on global finance leaders to work with regional stakeholders to build a more regenerative and equitable economy as delegates gather in Bangkok for the IMF–World Bank Group Annual Meetings.
The letter was released at the close of Bangkok Climate Action Week, which featured more than 330 events across the Thai capital. It was addressed to finance ministers, central bank governors, executive directors and leaders of multilateral institutions.
Rather than relying on incremental policy adjustments or continued resource extraction, the signatories highlighted existing approaches across Southeast Asia, including integrated rice-fish farming and community-led bioeconomies, as potential foundations for a more resilient economy.
“Our core premise is straightforward: our next economic leap will not come from extracting more from nature and people, but from investing in them, enhancing their capacity to regenerate and deliver more equitably shared value,” the letter said.
The letter outlines 10 areas for action, including incorporating the United Nations’ “Beyond GDP” measures into credit ratings, loan assessments and policymaking; aligning finance with the Paris Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework; and phasing out harmful subsidies.
It also calls for greater investment in clean energy grids, community-owned renewable power and regenerative food systems, alongside a shift from post-disaster reconstruction toward prevention and climate-risk planning.
On public finance, the signatories urge international institutions to address debt burdens while protecting government spending on social and environmental programs. They also call for long-term financing mechanisms that provide Indigenous peoples, local communities and small businesses working on regenerative activities with more direct access to capital.
Other priorities include protecting customary land rights and traditional knowledge, ensuring fair benefit-sharing, providing grant-based funding for climate-related loss and damage, and strengthening the participation of women, young people and vulnerable communities in policymaking.
The letter also proposes stronger regional and South-South partnerships to support green economic transitions.
The appeal comes 35 years after Thailand first hosted the IMF–World Bank Group Annual Meetings in 1991. It frames the challenge not as a lack of viable alternatives, but as the need to create financial and policy conditions that enable them to expand.
“We can persist with an extractive economic paradigm and surrender to the mounting chaos and pain of a global unraveling already in motion; or we can embrace a great turning that will set us on a path to recovery, resilience, and shared prosperity for generations to come,” the letter said. ***
