Southeast Asia

The following link will take you to INQUIRER.net: https://globalnation.inquirer.net/104158/asean-one-community-urged-on-climate-change Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer | 12 May 2014

The latest IPCC report shows that the Asian region will be severely affected by a broad range of climate change impacts and the most urgent development challenge for ASEAN is how to avert run-away climate change and help its poor communities adapt to changing climate patterns. Over the past decade, ASEAN had been busy, forging and strengthening economic ties with some of the biggest and…

However, while local insurance initiatives are proving effective, there are arguments that a global approach is needed. The Munich Climate Insurance Initiative has called for governments and the insurance industry to work together more efficiently. The MCII, which was launched by Munich Re and is made up of insurers, climate change experts, NGOs and policy researchers, points out that while the insurance industry provides a…

Singapore, which experiences tropical downpours on most days, suffered its longest dry spell on record between January 13 and February 8 and has had little rain since. In peninsular Malaysia, 15 areas have not had rainfall in more than 20 days, with some of them dry for more than a month, according to the Malaysian Meteorological Department. Forecasters say the dry spell is expected to…

Less than a week later, Typhoon Pepeng (international code name Parma) hit Northern Luzon, leaving a death toll of 500 with damages estimated at P27 billion ($ 594 million). Thailand was devastated by severe flooding when Tropical Storm Nock-ten hit the country in July 2011. The flood, which affected 64 of Thailand’s 77 provinces, killed 800 people, damaged more than 3 million homes, and inundated…

Climate change has become malignant. It threatens to blunt Asia's growth and upend our development. Climate scientists are increasingly certain that catastrophic weather events -- such as the 2011 floods in Thailand, one of history's costliest disasters, or last year's Typhoon Haiyan, which killed and displaced thousands of people in the Philippines -- will become more frequent and intense. From small island states to delta…