Welcome to SEARCA Knowledge Center on Climate Change Adaptation in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management in Southeast Asia (KC3)

Southeast Asia

Published on 19 March 2015
In a statement made at the 3rd UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction meeting in Sendai, Japan at the weekend, the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin explained the importance of meeting the threat posed by disaster risks head-on. The ASEAN region is ready to respond to the challenges posed by natural disasters and extreme weather events, the statement explained…
Published on 9 March 2015
Electricity generation is forecast to nearly triple in the region between 2011 and 2035, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says, with fossil fuels like coal providing most of the energy. With a population of 600 million, nearly twice that of the United States, and about 130 million people without electricity, Southeast Asia faces an immense challenge to meet energy demands in a cost-efficient and sustainable…
Published on 26 November 2014
Biodiversity, she noted, is usually discussed in the context of pristine spaces. If you cannot stop people from moving to cities, then cities should be made richer in biodiversity to enhance the quality of life in urban settings, said Dr Chan, who delivered a lecture to more than 150 youths at the Singapore Technologies Endowment Programme — National University of Singapore (STEP-NUS) Sunburst Environment Programme…
Published on 26 November 2014
Citing the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the ASEAN for a Fair, Ambitious and Binding Global Climate Deal (A-FAB) coalition said typhoons and other extreme weather events would become more intense and frequent unless governments took immediate steps to move toward a low-carbon economy. Volunteers from Tacloban in the Phillipines sent a message to ASEAN featuring a photo in which…
Published on 5 November 2014
An international consultation on this issue ended with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders emphasizing the need for international and local policies, and joint action to help people displaced by disasters (PDD) in Southeast Asia, one of the regions most vulnerable to disasters. Led by the Nansen Initiative (NI) from October 15 to 17, the consultation aimed to identify the challenges and opportunities that…
Published on 5 November 2014
ASEAN will become a major economic bloc. It is now home to 620 million people, has a nominal Gross Domestic Product or total economic output of $2.32 trillion (3.3 percent of the world’s total GDP), total exports of $1.2 trillion (almost 7 percent of the global total), and total GDP in purchasing power parity (ppp) of $3.6 trillion. In terms of population or…
Published on 5 November 2014
At the summit, a group of 348 investors with assets totalling more than US$24 trillion also made a pledge to increase investments in renewable energy as a part of the Global Investor Statement on Climate Change, which also called on governments to reach a global climate change agreement by the end of 2015. This statement on how investors could contribute to low carbon and climate…
Published on 15 October 2014
The five-year U.S.-led project brings together the Lower Mekong nations of Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, as the region faces growing challenges from the impact of climate change, in particular increasingly severe weather patterns. Environmentalists say these challenges include issues over water use, deforestation, floods and disaster mitigation. The United Nations' Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, UNISDR, says costs are rising from natural disasters…
Published on 15 October 2014
These numbers were presented by Charlotte Benson, the senior disaster risk management specialist of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on September 30, while addressing journalists from ADB member countries. “During the last five years, the numbers have been particularly alarming. The losses caused by disasters are increasing faster than the region is growing economically,” he said. Listing the main factors that cause disasters, Benson said…
Published on 9 October 2014
A regional coalition of non-government organisations has called on government leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to speak as ‘one voice’ and prioritise financing as a response to the increasing impact of climate change in the region, including on food security. Asean For a Fair, Ambitious and Binding Global Climate Deal (A-FAB) released a policy brief titled Weathering Extremes: The need…
Published on 9 October 2014
Asean today is facing its biggest challenge due to climate change and demands for a much stronger response than what the regional bloc is currently offering. Southeast Asia faced its worst weather calamities in the last decade, costing the region tens of thousands of lives and more than US$4 billion (RM12.8 billion) annually, an NGO group revealed today. The coalition Asean For a Fair, Ambitious…
Published on 9 October 2014
The following link will take you to INQUIRER.net: https://globalnation.inquirer.net/111500/stronger-asean-response-to-climate-change-pressed Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer | 22 September 2014
Published on 26 August 2014
In the province of Eastern Samar, the coconut groves that local workers depend on for wages and daily labor were flattened, eliminating one of the main sources of income for workers in the area. In the blink of an eye, the already fragile economy of a poor rural area was devastated. The coconut groves were part of a monoculture approach to agriculture that is common…
Published on 23 July 2014
Optimists think - and the rest of us hope - that with growing affluence, awareness and education, society's concern for the environment will grow. Governments, responding to public and media pressure and with a reduced need to pursue development "at all costs", will incorporate stronger, more robust environmental controls and regulation, and so such environmental costs will wane. The idea is reassuring. Just keep on…
Published on 15 July 2014
“In the Philippines hazards are normal,” Liza Bernardo Zurbito of Children International said. But she stressed, “They only become disasters when we are not prepared.” The wealth of experiences on the ground in these two countries was captured during the Conference on Community Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Building from July 2-4 in Silang, Cavite. The International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) and Give2Asia hosted…
Published on 15 July 2014 Southeast Asia
The three-year study by scientists worldwide also found that the tropics is getting hotter and larger. Covering some 130 countries and territories around the Equator and situated between the Tropic of Cancer in the north and the Tropic of Capricorn in the south — the tropics is expanding as climate change heats up the earth, turning more and more countries into a hot zone. It…
Published on 2 July 2014 Southeast Asia
In a press statement, the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) said the Philippine government presented the climate adaptation proposal to representatives of the sub-region during the environment cluster meeting late last month in Sandakan, Malaysia. The goal of the proposal, said Janet M. Lopoz, executive director of MinDA, “is to lessen the impact of climate change, with the prime goal of preventing environmental disasters within the…
Published on 23 June 2014 Southeast Asia
"This newly ratified Action Plan covers the establishment of seascapes towards the focus of the marine resource management, the development of the waters conservation zone, the sustainable fishery management building, the adaptation reinforcement of the coastal areas to the climate change, and the conservation of the endangered marine species, " said Sharif Sutradjo, Indonesia's Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries and member of the CTI…
Published on 5 June 2014
This, after an expanded bilateral meeting with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Malacanang today. In a joint statement, Aquino said: "We both share the belief that much more can be done to maximize the prospects of equitable growth." For his part, Yudhoyono congratulated the Philippines for its economic growth. In his World Economic Forum speech Thursday, Yudhoyono said: "It doesn't matter how many billionaires…
Published on 21 May 2014
U Thein Sein laid out a three-point framework that he said could stem the impact of climate change on the region. The plan begins by bolstering the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Centre (AHA), which he described as unable to adequately respond to natural disasters in its current form. The AHA headquarters in Jakarta opened in 2012 but it has relatively little capacity despite being in a…
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