Harvested News

At a recent seminar on promoting tech parks and resource recovery in HCMC, experts discussed the feasibility of developing eco-IPs (EIPs) and ways to find funding for environmental projects in Vietnam. The seminar was organized by the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Support Center 2 (SMEDEC 2) and the Taiwan Green Productivity Foundation (TGPF). Yi-Fan Liao of TGPF presented models of building new EIPs…

The event was organized to encourage all parties involved in the 2015 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 21), including Vietnam, to ensure the rights and benefits of ethnic minorities were protected, as well as their ability to participate in climate change response. Vietnamese ethnic groups including the Tay, Nung and Thai are facing critical impacts of climate change, such as flooding…

In the faces of its victims and heroes, we see, reflected, the experiences of all others who face typhoons. But Haiyan has also become a symbol of what a disrupted climate means for humanity. Science shows that a warmer climate could mean stronger storms. Haiyan was the storm that drew that connection. AFTERMATH. One of the underlying threats to those who are displaced by…

Weather officials say monsoon winds, combined with wind patterns created by Typhoon Koppu, which recently hammered the northern island of Luzon, could be causing the “smaze” – smoke and haze -- to drift from Indonesia to the Philippines 1,200 kilometres away.The health department has advised residents in affected areas to wear face masks to prevent inhalation of air particles that can cause respiratory problems…

Global temperatures will increase by around 3 degrees Celsius despite current efforts to cut emissions and to limit the temperature increase to below 2 degrees Celsius, researchers have found. It also stated that 100 INDCs included an adaptation component, which demonstrates the global imperative of adapting to climate change alongside efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Figueres said the collective plans have the capability…

Thus, taking an active role toward a climate-resilient nation, top business leaders gathered recently for the first time at a hotel in Makati City for the “Philippine Business’ Response to Climate Change and El Niño: Manila Declaration Signing and Water Alliance Launch.” Recognizing that the Philippines is one of the top countries that are vulnerable to climate change, the Manila Declaration 2015 is a…

At the seminar on Vietnam’s contributions to mitigating the impact of climate change, Nguyen Khac Hieu, deputy head of the Department of Meteorology, Hydrology and Climate Change, said Vietnam’s GHG emissions reduction projects are mostly in the fields of energy, agriculture, land use and waste treatment. Total greenhouse gas emissions in Vietnam are forecast to amount to around 787 million tons of carbon dioxide…

Experts had warned that this year's outbreak was on track to become the worst yet due to bone-dry conditions caused by the El Niño phenomenon, which alters weather patterns across the Pacific basin. Here's a quick overview of the haze crisis gripping the region. Source: Rappler | 01 November 2015…

In the contemporary times, policies on responding to calamities started as early as 1970s. Typhoon Sening (international codename Joan) was reported to have a speed of up to 275 kph. For 36 years (1970-2006), it held the record of being the strongest typhoon in the Philippines. Seeing the need to establish a contingency plan for these events, former President Marcos ordered the creation of…

The fires in Indonesia are truly out of control, having spiked in recent weeks to their highest levels in years. More than 300,000 Indonesians have sought medical help for respiratory illnesses linked to the choking haze. Pollution levels are up to five times above what the World Health Organization considers to be hazardous levels. Schools and airports have been closed. The Indonesian government has…

As costs increase, cities are realizing that investing solely in traditional, built infrastructure isn’t always the best use of tight budgets. Instead, some urban areas are benefitting from natural infrastructure or “green” infrastructure, a strategically planned and managed system of natural lands, working landscapes and other natural soil and vegetation systems across a watershed or within a city, that perform many of same functions…

But two groups have been considerably less sanguine: Filipinos in food production and the government agencies that deal with them. Loss and devastation, it turns out, do not always come upon us in a single catastrophic event. In early October, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PAGASA) warned us about the “el Niño” phenomenon—officially called…

By mid-October, there were more than 100,000 fires raging in the Indonesian provinces of Sumatra and Kalimantan that had released an estimated 995 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the past four months. This is just short of 1 gigaton. When these fires are eventually extinguished they will certainly have released much more than a gigaton of carbon dioxide. The…

The 2009 Conference of Parties (COP) in Copenhagen failed to have a climate agreement, but the following COP in Cancun then resulted to a long term goal of achieving a 2ºC limit. Scientific studies, however, say that 2ºC warming is already highly dangerous. A study – led by climate scientist James Hansen, alongside 16 other scientists – said that 2 degrees of warming could…

A team comprising 40 Singapore Armed Forces’ and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers returned home on Saturday after more than 10 days battling forest fires in Palembang, Indonesia. In response to media queries, MFA said the Government intends to enhance bilateral, regional and international cooperation to tackle the fires, and will continue to take legal action against errant companies responsible for the haze…

Dr. Rodel D. Lasco, chairman of the Task Force on Climate Change of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), said adaptation and mitigation should always go together in combatting climate change. “One should not exist without the other. Before, we see programs that are for adaptation only or mitigation only. Programs should be both for adaptation and mitigation,” Lasco said in an…

Rich countries have promised to mobilize $100bn a year by 2020 in climate finance for poor countries, and they remain well short of their target even though a number of key nations such as the UK, China and France have upped their funding pledges in recent weeks. But the total amount of investment required for the climate mitigation and adaptation measures necessary to limit…

Climate change could arrive with startling speed. New research has identified at least 37 “tipping points” that would serve as evidence that climate change has happened – and happened abruptly in one particular region. And 18 of them could happen even before the world warms by an average of 2°C, the proposed “safe limit” for global warming. Weather is what happens, climate is…