Southeast Asia

The first-ever analysis of long-term orangutan population trends revealed a worrying decline, they said. An international team of researchers used a combination of helicopter and ground surveys, interviews with local communities, and modelling techniques to draw a picture of change over the past ten years. Previous counts have largely relied on estimations based on ground and aerial surveys of orangutan nests. Some suggested that Bornean…

But new data on the world’s biggest developers of coal-fired power plants paints a very different picture: China’s energy companies will make up nearly half of the new coal generation expected to go online in the next decade. These Chinese corporations are building or planning to build more than 700 new coal plants at home and around the world, some in countries that today burn…

Sudden and Unexpected For years, China’s seemingly insatiable demand for coal kept prices high. China, along with India, was a rapidly growing country with huge demand for energy, and coal was the cheapest, time-tested way to provide electricity. It was, after all, coal that fueled the industrialization of Europe and North America; coal was reliable, and, at the time, cheap and plentiful. China, Indonesia, Australia…

A report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this month confirms this observation by concluding that marine reserves are capable of mitigating and promoting climate change adaptation. At the same time, however, they stand extremely vulnerable to climate-induced sea warming. While most countries already put some marine protection measures in place, the management of shared marine environment, especially in contested areas…

Lione Clare has created a climate change presentation entitled, Vulnerable Vietnam: A Photo Story Focused on Climate Change in the Mekong Delta. She gave the show at the Sitka Public Library on June 1, the same day President Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Accord. Clare studies Resource Conservation, Climate Change Studies, and Media Arts at the University of Montana. For the last…

The Paris Agreement is a global deal aimed at limiting the negative impact of climate change. The implications for Southeast Asia’s forests were explained to senior officials of member states at an Experts Dialogue on Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in ASEAN held in Bali, Indonesia, 30 November 2016 by Grace Wong of the Center for International Forestry Research. The Dialogue was supported by Gesellschaft…

“It’s critical that the donor community pursues and increases its support for the needs of the Pacific,” he said. SPC has a large portfolio of climate change and disaster risk management projects in the Pacific region and collaborates closely with the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS). While in Hawai’i, Dr Tukuitonga will also have the…

Overall, landfalling Asian typhoon intensity has increased by about 12 percent in nearly four decades. But the change is most noticeable for storms with winds of 209 kilometers per hour or more (130 mph), those in categories 4 and 5. Since 1977, they've gone from a once-a-year occurrence to four times a year, according to a study Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience. These…

The new edition of the Asian Water Development Outlook (AWDO 2016) released today at World Water Week in Stockholm provides a snapshot of the water security status of 48 of the region’s countries, using latest data sets. According to these, the number of countries assessed as water insecure has dropped to 29, compared to 38 (out of 49 countries) identified in the previous issue of…

U Khin Maung Yi, the permanent secretary of Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation of Myanmar reaffirmed that Asean Vision 2025 calls for clean and green Asean to achieve sustainable development by ensuring protection of the region’s environment during the 27th Meeting of Asean Senior Officials on Environment (ASOEN) in Nay Pyi Taw on August 1. Participants from all Asean Member States attended the…

Clean energy development and inclusive growth policies should be part of the environmental fiscal reform in the region, Venkatachalam Anbumozhi and Han Phoumin said in a discussion paper published by Economic Research Institute for Asean and East Asia (ERIA). “Integrated energy, fiscal, educational, skill enhancement and social development policy actions can help to tackle these challenges in either short or medium term,” the authors…

According to the model, the region will be generally 2-4 degrees Celsius warmer by 2060 and continue to heat up around 3-5 degrees Celsius until 2100. The strongest warming will occur in mainland Southeast Asia. Extreme rainfall events will occur in the northern part of the region, which covers northern Vietnam, Laos, parts of Thailand and northern Philippines. From June to August…

Economic losses under the 'business-as-usual' emissions scenario could be 60 percent higher than previously estimated, and this could reduce the region's gross domestic product by up to 11 percent per year by 2100, the ADB said in an analysis updating a 2009 report that estimated a 7-percent annual reduction in combined economic output due to climate change. "The economic costs of not…

As temperatures warm and drought periods grow longer and more severe over the next 50 years, the water levels in rivers and lakes are expected to fall. For 98 percent of the world’s power plants, that’s a problem that could result in a 30 percent decrease in electricity production in some months at most power stations. Natural water flow is needed to generate energy…

Early warning systems have improved. That the current El Niño would be one of the strongest was suspected by early last year and confirmed by August. In mainland Southeast Asia, a rainfall deficit led to farmers being warned of a water shortage in the coming dry season. El Niño-triggered events can sometimes be welcome: rain and snow in California have broken a 10-year drought…

What are the current prospects for these small island developing states and for the small island communities in larger developing countries in South-East Asia, such as Indonesia or the Philippines’ tens of thousands of islands? The Paris agreement notes that countries must consider “the right to development…and the rights of people in vulnerable situations”, as well as make an explicit link to goal…