The European Union Green Deal in Southeast Asia Critical Approaches to Policy Discourse and Implementation

1. Introduction: The Ambiguities, Controversies, and Opportunities of the European Green Deal in Southeast Asia

Otto Hospes, Arya Hadi Dharmawan, Athiqah Nur Alami and Helen E.S. Nesadurai

Part 1: Controversies of the EGD as a Unilateral Measure

2. Navigating between Conformist and Decolonial Justice: The Case of Indonesian Diplomats Addressing the European Union Deforestation Regulation

Edwin Mahatir Muhammad Ramadhan, Otto Hospes, and Catrien J. A. M. Termeer

3. Rethinking the European Union Green Deal in ASEAN: Decolonizing Climate Action Perspectives for an Equitable Future

Gerald John Cabanilla Guillermo

4. The European Union Green Deal in Indonesia – Germany Relations: Navigating Challenges and Seizing Opportunities

Athiqah Nur Alami and Indriana Kartini

Part 2: Regulatory and Legal Ambiguities – Norms, Discourses, and Taxonomies

5. Making the European Union Green Deal Work Differently: Norm Diffusion and the Resilient Structure of Palm Oil Production in Southeast Asian countries

Maharani Hapsari, Eusebius Pantja Pramudya and Inggit Kartika Dini

6. The Legal Implications of the European Union Deforestation Regulation towards Environmental Governance in Indonesia

Agus Suntoro, Laely Nurhidayah, Binov Handitya and Dinna Dayana La Ode Malim

7. Developing Sustainable Finance Taxonomies in the European Union and ASEAN: Convergence or Contestation?

Apolline Simons and Lena Rethel

8. Finding Loopholes in the Forest: How Nickel Companies Abuse Discursive Ambiguity on Deforestation

Nadia Fausta Azhara

Part 3: Environmental and Social Impacts – Controversies and Opportunities

9. From Green Transition to Green Grabbing: The Impact of Democratic Regression at Indonesia's Geothermal Frontier

Yogi Setya Permana

10. Are Small Farmers Doomed? A Techno-Political Analysis of the European Union Deforestation Regulation’s Effect on Palm Oil Supply Chains in Malaysia

Pieter E. Stek and Asad Ata

11. Navigating the Labyrinth: Challenges and Opportunities for Southeast Asia’s Palm Oil Smallholders under the EU Green Deal

Iman K. Nawireja, Eusebius Pantja Pramudya, Ghilandy Ramadhan and Maharani Hapsari

12. Making the European Union Green Deal Benefit the Environment Society of the European Union and ASEAN

Herry Purnomo, Beni Okarda, Lila Juniyanti, Sonya Dyah Kusumadewi amd Dyah Puspitaloka

13. Afterword: Main Points, New Principles, and Future Outlook 

Otto Hospes, Arya Hadi Dharmawan, Athiqah Nur Alami and Helen E.S. Nesadurai

Biography

Otto Hospes is Associate Professor of Public Administration and Policy at Wageningen University, the Netherlands, and Adjunct Professor of the Politics of Global Value Chains at IPB University, Indonesia. His research focuses on the international politics of sustainable food and agriculture, particularly the contestation between state and non-state actors from the Global South and Global North over sustainability governance. He has published widely on the governance of sustainable palm oil in Indonesia, including the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO), and conflicts between communities and companies. He is co-author of Rightless Resistance: Postcolonial Citizenship, Palm Oil, and Land Grabbing in Indonesia. His recent work examines debates between the EU and countries in the Global South over EU “green” legislation on renewable energy, deforestation, and due diligence, as well as the idea of norm subsidiarity as an alternative to regulatory unilateralism.

Arya Hadi Dharmawan is Professor in Political Ecology in the Faculty of Human Ecology, IPB University, Indonesia. He primarily researches the topics of agricultural expansion, rural livelihoods, farm household livelihood resilience and vulnerability, agrarian changes, natural resources, and environmental governance. His recent work focuses on Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) in Indonesia, the Oil Palm Adaptive Landscape (OPAL), and the impact of European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) Policy in Indonesia.

Athiqah Nur Alami is Senior Researcher at the Research Center for Politics, the National Research and Innovation Agency (Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional [BRIN]), Indonesia. Her main interests are Indonesia’s labour migration, foreign policy, and gender in International Relations. She has been part of the research team on Indonesia’s foreign policy for the last ten years. In the last three years, Athiqah and her team have been conducting research on Indonesia in the Indo-Pacific, gender in Indonesia’s foreign policy, education for displaced children, and forced migration. Her publication with the research team, “Indonesia’s engagement in the climate change negotiations: building national resilience,” as part of the edited volume on Climate Change, Community Response and Resilience, was published in 2023.

Helen E.S. Nesadurai is Professor of International Political Economy at Monash University Malaysia in the School of Arts and Social Sciences. From an original interest in the IPE of regional integration, governance, and state-based institutional architectures in Southeast Asia/ASEAN and the Asia Pacific, she has expanded her work to study non-state modes of transnational governance and their intersection with state authority in this region. Her recent work, “Challenging the EU Deforestation Regulation: Sovereignty Games as Authority Contests in Global Governance,” has been accepted for publication in International Affairs in 2026.