SINGAPORE, September 20, 2026 : Haze from Indonesian fires, intensifying heat, heavier rainfall, stronger typhoons and rising pressure on food and water systems are becoming increasingly visible signs of the climate crisis across Singapore and Southeast Asia, former US Vice President Al Gore warned during the Climate Reality Leadership Corps Training held in Singapore earlier this month.
Delivering a presentation titled “Presenting the Climate Crisis: Science, Impact and Solutions for Southeast Asia”, the Chairman of The Climate Reality Project used recent examples from across the region to argue that climate impacts are becoming more frequent, more intense and more disruptive.
One of the most immediate examples for Singapore this year has been haze linked to fires in Indonesia. Gore said more than 100,000 hectares had already burned in Indonesia this year, with smoke affecting neighbouring parts of Malaysia and Singapore.
He said peat fires are particularly damaging because they release not only carbon but also high levels of sulphur dioxide, particulate matter, organic carbon, methane and carbon monoxide.
“I’ve been here for several days now, and like you, I’ve been breathing this in,” Gore told the Singapore audience.
The haze issue, he argued, cannot be seen in isolation from the broader climate picture. Higher temperatures and drought create conditions in which fires spread more easily, while land-use practices such as peat burning can intensify the damage.
Heat Is Amplifying Multiple Risks
Gore repeatedly returned to heat as the common factor behind many of the region’s worsening climate impacts.
The same excess heat that dries soils and increases wildfire risk also enables the atmosphere to hold more moisture, contributing to more intense downpours.
For every increase in temperature, Gore said, the atmosphere can hold around 7% more water vapour, which helps explain the rise in short-duration, high-intensity rain events.
He pointed to Singapore’s rainfall pattern as one example, saying the city-state has seen rainfall increase over successive decades, with more precipitation falling in intense storm events.
Across Southeast Asia, the trend is already visible in repeated flooding and landslides. Gore cited recent examples from West Java, Malaysia and Vietnam, including a Malaysian event in which about one million people were displaced by severe rainfall.
His warning was that these events should not be dismissed as a “new normal”.
“When you hear the phrase ‘new normal’, that implies that it’s gonna stay that way. No,” Gore said. “It continues to get worse.”
Stronger Storms Across Asia
Warmer oceans are also contributing to stronger cyclonic storms.
Gore said the total number of typhoons is not necessarily expected to increase, but the proportion of very strong storms is rising and rapid intensification is becoming more common. That matters because communities have less time to prepare before storms reach dangerous strength.
He cited recent typhoons affecting China, the Philippines and Vietnam, and noted that many of the examples he now uses in his climate presentations are no longer from decades ago.
“Most of the examples I use now were last month, or last week or earlier this year,” he said, arguing that extreme events are becoming more frequent as well as more intense.
Southeast Asia’s Water and Food Security Under Pressure
The climate risks extend far beyond weather events.
Gore warned that water availability is becoming a major concern as higher temperatures increase demand from people, agriculture, industry and power generation at the same time that water supplies are becoming less reliable.
He said water scarcity now affects more than 40% of the world’s population, pointing to examples in Indonesia and India where communities already face severe stress.
For Southeast Asia, the Himalayan glaciers are an especially important concern because they feed some of the region’s most important river systems.
Gore said the Himalayan glaciers provide a major source of water to roughly a quarter of the world’s population and help feed rivers including the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Mekong, Yangtze and Yellow River.
Unless warming is brought under control, he warned that a large proportion of Himalayan ice could disappear over the coming decades, threatening water supplies for agriculture and communities throughout Asia.
The food system is also becoming more exposed. Gore said increasing heat, drought, flooding and extreme weather are already reducing crop yields and raising the risk of simultaneous disruption across major food-producing regions.
For Singapore, which imports more than 90% of its food, disruption to agricultural production elsewhere can quickly translate into domestic food-security pressure.
Sea-Level Rise Adds Another Layer of Risk
Sea-level rise presents a particularly serious challenge for Southeast Asia’s coastal cities and communities. Gore said the global rate of sea-level rise has doubled over roughly the past 30 years, driven by thermal expansion and melting glaciers and ice sheets.
Indonesia is especially exposed. Gore said around 40% of North Jakarta is below sea level, while millions of people across Indonesia and the Philippines face risks linked to higher seas.
The consequences begin before shorelines are visibly inundated. Saltwater can enter groundwater and soil, damaging agriculture. Gore said more than 1.7 million farmers have migrated out of the Mekong Delta over the past decade, with salinity affecting crop production in parts of the region.
For Southeast Asia, this makes sea-level rise not simply a coastal infrastructure issue, but a food, migration and economic resilience issue.
Climate Risk Is Becoming Financial Risk
Gore also argued that climate change is increasingly affecting the financial system. He said climate-related disasters had cost almost US$4 trillion over the past decade, while insurers are already withdrawing from some high-risk regions around the world.
His point was straightforward: when homes, infrastructure or entire regions become harder to insure, the effects spread into mortgages, property markets, jobs and investment.
“Entire asset classes are degrading in real time,” he said, linking physical climate risk with economic and financial vulnerability.
That connection is particularly relevant to Singapore, where climate finance, insurance and investment are important parts of the economy.
The Other Side of the Story: Solutions Are Already Available
Despite the severity of the warning, Gore’s presentation was not framed as a message of inevitability. He devoted the final part of his presentation to the rapid growth of renewable energy, particularly solar and wind.
“The good news” is that solutions are already available, he said, arguing that the technologies needed to cut emissions are increasingly cheaper and more scalable.
Solar, in particular, has expanded far faster than earlier forecasts. Gore highlighted Singapore’s progress, noting that the country’s solar capacity has tripled over the past five years and is expected to triple again over the next decade.
“Bravo, Singapore,” he said. “That’s leadership. Still not fast enough.”
With limited land, Singapore relies heavily on rooftop solar, which Gore said accounts for around 80% of its solar capacity, along with floating solar installations on reservoirs.
He argued that the wider Southeast Asian opportunity is even larger. According to Gore, most countries in the region could theoretically meet their electricity needs with solar using less than 1% of their land area, underscoring the scale of the region’s renewable-energy potential.
For Singapore and Southeast Asia, that creates a sharp contrast. The region is already experiencing haze, heat, floods, stronger storms, sea-level rise and increasing pressure on water and food systems. Yet it also has some of the world’s strongest solar potential and growing clean-energy investment.
Gore’s message was that adaptation remains necessary, but the region cannot simply learn to live with worsening conditions.
The answer, he argued, is to move faster on the source of the problem itself: reducing emissions and accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels.