Key Issues for a Successful Copenhagen Climate Change Summit: The Role of Emerging Countries in Asia

Speaker: Dr Bindu N Lohani, Vice President (Finance and Administration), Asian Development Bank

Venue: ISEAS Seminar Room II

The international community is facing one of the biggest challenges to human development in recorded history – the challenge of climate change. And nowhere in the world will communities and economies be impacted as heavily as in the Asia and the Pacific. Burgeoning coastal and urban populations, poor environmental management, and heavy dependency on subsistence agriculture compound existing development challenges in a region where more than 900 million people in the region still live on less than $1.25 a day. Asia is vulnerable. For example, the economy-wide cost of climate change for Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and VietNam could reach 6.7% of GDP per year by 2100. For meeting the climate change targets by 2050, both developing and developed countries should be involved.

Dr Bindu Lohani will outline recent developments that increase our understanding of climate change drivers and impacts, globally and on Asia. There have been several ongoing debates around the subject of climate
change. In this context, Dr Lohani will discuss the four key issues which need to be included in the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009, in particular, the role of emerging countries in Asia, to have a meaningful post-Kyoto Protocol framework for climate change.

For details and registration, visit the ISEAS website.

Source: ISEAS

Climate Change in Singapore

Speaker: Dr Elspeth Thomson, Senior Fellow, Energy Studies Institute (ESI)

Venue: ISEAS Seminar Room II

According to the fourth assessment report (AR4) of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the effects of climate change have already been observed. Climate change is considered to be one of the most serious threats to sustainable development, with adverse impacts expected on the environment, human health, food security, economic activity, natural resources and physical infrastructure. Scientific findings indicate that precautionary and prompt action is necessary.

Singapore is almost totally reliant on cross-border trade for raw material and food stuffs. W e are also directly affected by the environmental and ecological challenges facing our neighbours. Our small land area and close proximity to neighbouring ASEAN countries makes our economy even more vulnerable to the extremes of climate change and serve to remind us that our environment is tied to the environmental changes of our Southeast Asian neighbours.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) w ith the support of the Government of the United Kingdom recently released a Regional Review of the Economics of Climate Change in Southeast Asia. Dr Thomson will present highlights from the Singapore contribution to this report.

For more details on the seminar, visit the ISEAS website.

Source: ISEAS

Saving Gaia is Back

The third season of the Saving Gaia documentary series will be shown on ChannelNewsAsia starting every Mon from June 1 at 8:31pm (Singapore time) with repeats on Mon 11:31pm, Tues 1:32pm and Wed 5:32pm.

This season’s focus is on Asia’s simple green solutions. Episode 1 is on:

Would you study in a school made out of paper? Or would you use paper made from elephant dung? Sometimes the answer lies in the unexpected, or the simplest of ideas.

The Saving Gaia website is not updated so there’s not much details about the new series nor any new provocative advertisement.

Gallup Polls on Public Awareness of Global Warming

Gallup conducted polls in 127 countries in 2007 and 2008 to understand the level of public awareness on global warming. The results show that about 38% of the world’s population have never heard about global warming or did not have an opinion. There are 2 key findings:

Public awareness of global warming tends to be higher in highly developed countries and lower in less developed countries.

Their responses reveal that public knowledge of the concept of global warming is not the same thing as the public belief that global warming is a result of human activities.

Here’s a selection of the countries in Asia and their responses: Read more

Asia Environmental News: 11 Nov 08

• China pays high environmental and social price for reliance on coal (Guardian) – The True Cost of Coal, a new report published by Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund and The Energy Foundation, says that the social and environmental impacts of using coal cost China an additional 1.7 trillion yuan.
• New deal to rescue Borneo orangutans in Malaysia (Yahoo) – The Malaysian-based LEAP Conservancy group is planning to buy 222 acres of tropical jungle land on Borneo island from palm oil operators, and turn it into a forest sanctuary to protect Borneo’s orangutans, pygmy elephants and other endangered wildlife.
• Thailand commissions nuclear power plant study (Today) – The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand is conducting a feasibility study for Thailand’s first nuclear power plant.
• Marina Barrage: First city reservoir opens (Straits Times via Wildsingapore) – Singapore opens its new Marina Barrage to create the 15th reservoir, and to increase water supply and control flooding.
• Singapore could draw more green energy projects (Business Times via Wildsingapore) – Singapore is looking to attract more mega investments to develop new alternative energy ideas and technologies.

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