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Published on 16 November 2015
Sadly, many of these fires were started deliberately. Every year fires are lit in order to clear land for plantation. This method of clearance is called ‘slash and burn’. It’s the easiest and quickest way to clear land, but it produces a vast amount of smoke. Although it’s illegal in Indonesia, its use is widespread. This year the fires have been worse than usual…
Published on 16 November 2015
The report – ‘Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty’ – explains that the world must continue pushing hard with its poverty reduction and development work, while at the same time taking into account a changing climate. People need help in being able to cope with climate shocks. They need flood protection, early-warning systems, and heat-resistant crops, the authors say. At the…
Published on 9 November 2015
“Reports that the fires are emitting as much carbon into the atmosphere in a day as some countries are in a year reflects the global ramifications of this disaster. Locally, one-third of the endangered wild orangutans on Borneo are threatened by the fires, and biodiversity hotspots such as the Leuser Ecosystem in Sumatra are under extreme threat. “While the fires this year are particularly…
Published on 9 November 2015
Measures to reduce carbon emissions, such as shifting to renewable energy, may be costly and difficult to implement, but businesses must do so urgently because climate change is already threatening their profits and operations, said sustainability experts on Tuesday. Japanese carmaker Honda for example lost US$250 million in 2011 when floods destroyed its car assembly plants in Thailand. Profits of Re-insurer Munich Re declined…
Published on 12 October 2015 Southeast Asia
“This will require a combination of conserving and managing existing resources more effectively, tapping science to grow food from less land, and drawing in investment to meet growing food demand,” said Mahfuz Ahmed, Asian Development Bank (ADB) Technical Adviser for Rural Development and Food Security. Climate change is a major food security challenge in Asia with more than 60% of the population, or 2.2…
Published on 12 October 2015 Southeast Asia
It pointedly held its inaugural meeting just ahead of a gathering of G-20 finance ministers in the Peruvian capital of Lima, where economic policymakers from around the world are gathered this week for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. "We are low- and middle-income, least developed, arid, isthmus, landlocked, mountainous and small-island developing countries," the group said in…
Published on 5 October 2015
Among the masses of marine flora and fauna in the system are six of the world’s seven sea turtle species. Sea turtles are among the marine creatures most endangered due to human activity. The destruction of their breeding grounds and their vulnerability to ocean pollution has helped make sea turtles a high-profile symbol for waste reduction and conservation. Spread over six million square…
Published on 7 September 2015
New hotspots are appearing in Southeast Asia’s Mekong Basin, South America’s Gran Chaco region and Madagascar, high-resolution satellite mapping released by Global Forest Watch shows. The world lost more than 18 million hectares of forest in 2014, an area twice the size of Portugal. Over 2012-14, the three-year average was the worst since records began in 2001, in a troubling trend as rates reverse…
Published on 7 September 2015
In particular, the initiative aims to help countries make improvements in medium- to long-term planning and budgeting processes. Under the four-year initiative, countries will receive various types of support. FAO will offer policy advice and technical support to ensure that climate change adaptation priorities in the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sectors are incorporated in this planning process. UNDP will engage with countries in managing…
Published on 11 August 2015
“This is because most of the population and economic activity is concentrated along coastlines, is heavily reliant on agriculture, and has a high dependence on natural resources and forestry,” Peter King, senior policy advisor of the Japan-based Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, said on Monday at a forum in Vientiane, Laos. “And high levels of poverty would make people more vulnerable,” he said. King…
Published on 3 August 2015
Most climate scientists have recognized that greenhouse gases, of which CO2 is part, contribute to global warming. The Paris event, which saw hundreds of scientists gather to discuss possible solutions to stem the effects of climate change, comes months before the UN Conference on Climate Change at year-end. Several Asian countries have already submitted their voluntary targets to the UN, including Japan, Singapore and…
Published on 29 July 2015
Speaking at the World Engineers Summit on Climate Change 2015 last Wednesday, Dr. Arab Hoballah, chief of the sustainable consumption and production branch, division of technology, industry and economics at the United Nations Environment Programme, said that cities today are still not climate-resilient because they do not have the “boing” factor – a term first coined by Neil McInroy and Sarah Longlands in their…
Published on 23 July 2015
By hurting the poor most, climate change now threatens to unravel those efforts, and even put them in reverse. A report last month for the Asian Development Bank (ADB), To Foster Inclusive Growth, Tackle Inequality and Climate Change, found that the poor were hit first and hardest when natural disasters strike. By living on the edge, physically and financially, they have the least capacity…
Published on 14 July 2015
The people who live there will not sit passively by while they and their children starve to death. Tens or hundreds of millions of people will try very hard to go somewhere they can survive. They will be hungry, thirsty, hot – and desperate. If the search for safety involves piling into perilous boats and enduring miserable and dangerous journeys, they will do it…
Published on 10 July 2015
"We find a clear overall upward trend for these unprecedented hazards," lead author Jascha Lehmann of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said in a statement. Overall, there were 12 percent more downpours which broke local records from 1981 to 2010 than would be expected in an unchanged climate, according to an analysis of rainfall statistics from thousands of weather stations since 1900…
Published on 28 May 2015
Southeast Asia is home to poor small-scale farmers like her who, despite hardship, prop up the region's agriculture sector. Agriculture contributes significantly to the gross domestic product and provides employment to the labor force of several countries in the region. However, Oxfam's new report, Harmless Harvest, argues that climate change is undermining the viability of agriculture in the region and putting many small-scale farmers'…
Published on 28 May 2015
"By scaling up sustainable agriculture practices across the region, ASEAN can help feed its peoples and prop up the livelihoods of small-scale food producers – and help curb greenhouse gas emissions," Oxfam said in a policy paper. In 2010, agriculture accounted for about a third of the GDP in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, and employed more than 60 percent of the labor force in…
Published on 10 April 2015 Southeast Asia
Planning under uncertainty The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Future Scenarios Team joined forces with UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) for a second time to help governments and their partners in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos plan under uncertainty. Key policy makers and stakeholders from different sectors met to critically evaluate and strengthen national agricultural, environmental and climate…
Published on 7 April 2015 Southeast Asia
These islands are especially vulnerable because of their large populations and because much of their land is exposed to storm surges and sea-level rises, according to research published by risk analysis group Verisk Maplecroft. Eight of the 10 cities most at risk from such events are in the Philippines, according to a study by the same firm last month, which said the country had…
Published on 31 March 2015 Southeast Asia
Millions are expected to take part around the world in the annual event organized by conservation group WWF, with hundreds of well-known sights including the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Seattle Space Needle set to plunge into darkness. “It’s almost like the thing vanished,” said Tony Jennings from Earth Hour after standing under the Sydney Harbour Bridge as the lights went off at…
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