What the Philippines needs to do after UN climate deal
GLASGOW, United Kingdom — The Philippines is urged to intensify its efforts to fight climate change after nearly 200 countries clinched a major deal that called for more ambition and action, but fell short of providing vulnerable nations funds to help them adapt to and recoup damages from climate-related impacts.
When the rain doesn’t come: Thailand in grip of severe drought as monsoon season fails to deliver
NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Thailand: Suthin Noramas cannot stop his tears as he surveys the parched land around him. His plot is about 2.25 hectares in size and has been carefully cultivated for some crops he thought would prove to be valuable to sell, such as durians, pepper and lemongrass. All of them are dying or dead. The […]
Why citizens play a key role in Southeast Asia’s energy transition
Some Southeast Asian nations have displayed leadership in facilitating bottom-up renewable energy development. Now it is time for others to follow suit.
Why is Laos building Mekong dams it doesn’t need?
Thailand’s economic slump during the coronavirus pandemic led to a drop in electricity demand, with officials estimating power reserves currently at 50% over total capacity.
Why Manila is at risk of becoming an underwater city
In three decades, this city and its surroundings could be submerged because of climate change, excessive groundwater use and land subsidence. The programme Insight finds out what the Philippines is doing to address this. The coastal village of Sitio Pariahan, about 17 kilometres north of Manila, is where he built a home and a family. […]
Will climate change spell the end of coal and hydropower in the Mekong?
This year has been rough for the 70 million people who call the Mekong River basin home: a severe drought rocked the region for months before yielding to deadly flooding. The Mekong slowed to its lowest level in recorded history, knocking the world’s largest freshwater fishery—Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake—out of balance. The drought hurt the region’s fishing and farming […]
Will Singapore warm up to nuclear energy to combat climate change?
Eight years since the Fukushima nuclear disaster triggered a global rethink on energy policy, signs have emerged that Singapore may be warming back up to the power source. Pro-nuclear chatter in the city state was spurred last month when Ho Ching – the chief executive of Singapore state investment fund Temasek Holdings, who is married to […]
Will Singaporeans change their lifestyles to fight climate change? An app can help
The fight against climate change is a race against time. Countries and businesses aim to transform their economies to meet carbon reduction goals, but what if the world cannot innovate its way out of the climate crisis?
With few green spaces, Bangkok plants Asia’s biggest rooftop farm
BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Bangkok’s Thammasat University, one of the oldest in Thailand, has a new claim to fame: Asia’s largest urban rooftop farm. The 7,000 sq mt (75,000 sq ft) space mimics rice terraces in northern Thailand and can help curb some of the impacts of climate change, such as frequent flooding, said […]
With new law, Indonesia gives miners more power and fewer obligations
JAKARTA — Indonesia’s parliament has passed a controversial bill that effectively gives miners bigger concessions and longer contracts, with fewer environmental obligations. Activists have slammed the May 12 passage of the bill, saying it will lead to unbridled exploitation by a mining industry that has already laid waste to large swaths of forest, polluted waterways, and disenfranchised local communities.