Climate change

  • A view of Kathmandu by night.

    Hard data and hard choices: Disaster risk financing in an Asian city

    By Madeleine Varkay on Wednesday, 06 May 2015

    Floods in India and Pakistan, typhoons in the Philippines and the recent earthquake in Nepal have reminded city leaders of the urgent need to safeguard the lives of their people, protect costly infrastructure, and ensure services and businesses can continue after disaster strikes.

  • Aceh, Indonesia, 10 years after the Itsunami.

    To transfer disaster risk, let’s partner with the insurance sector

    By Arup Kumar Chatterjee on Thursday, 26 March 2015

    The new Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction supports risk transfer and insurance to reduce the financial impact of disasters on governments and societies, especially in vulnerable developing countries.

  • Typhoon Rammasun (Glenda) batters the Philippine province of Laguna.

    Disaster resilience: Sendai framework to kick-start post-2015 agenda

    By Charlotte Benson on Tuesday, 24 March 2015

    Last week, representatives from 187 UN member states agreed on a new international framework to foster greater disaster resilience across the globe, the first of four global agreements on the post-2015 development agenda.

  • A child in a slum flooded by Tropical Storm Ketsana (Ondoy) in the Philippines.

    World Water Day: How we can ‘unflood’ Asia

    By Amy Leung on Monday, 23 March 2015

    On World Water Day, it’s time to reflect on how several of Asia’s developing countries are especially vulnerable to floods. What can we do to better address this problem? Adopt a holistic approach to flood management and resilience.

  • ADB senior management officials and experts engaged top youth debaters to discuss the best and most urgent approach to tackle global warming. Photo by Mike Babista

    Climate change: Who will save Asia, and the world?

    By Anna Oposa on Tuesday, 17 March 2015

    Will a top-down or a top-bottom approach save Asia and the world from climate change? ADB senior management officials and experts engaged top youth debaters to discuss the issue.

  • ADB’s safeguards policy could be a benchmark

    By Vinod Thomas on Thursday, 12 February 2015

    Safeguards to avert damage that development projects can do to the environment and communities are essential in development finance. 

  • Migration can mitigate negative impacts of climate change on children

    By Bart Édes on Thursday, 22 January 2015

    Children are generally more at risk than adults when environmental threats gradually grow, or when natural disaster suddenly strikes.

  • Welcoming an important step forward at UN climate talks in Lima

    By Xuedu Lu on Thursday, 08 January 2015

    There is still long way to go to reach a final agreement for effective climate change action in 2015, but the COP20 in Lima was an important step forward. 

  • Will the Green Climate Fund pledges create a momentum for ongoing climate negotiations?

    By Preety Bhandari on Thursday, 04 December 2014

    The recent formal pledging session for the Green Climate Fund (GCF)—more than $9 billion in just 5 months—is by far the most successful resource mobilization ever seen for a multilateral climate fund. The US has pledged $3 billion, followed by Japan ($1.5 billion), UK ($1.13 billion), and Germany and France (with $1 billion each). Four developing countries—Indonesia, Mexico, Mongolia, and Panama—have made pledges, breaking the traditional donor boundaries. 

  • Yolanda response shows power of the virtual citizen

    By Suzanne Nazal on Monday, 10 November 2014

    A year ago this last weekend, Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda) hit the Philippines, the strongest tropical cyclone in recorded history. You may have heard about this tragedy via traditional media but it is likely you heard more about it through social media.

  • Window of opportunity still open on climate action

    By Preety Bhandari on Wednesday, 05 November 2014

    A set of reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the last of which was released on November 2, 2014, sets the scene for governments to renew their efforts on the issue through ambitious commitments for a comprehensive climate agreement in Paris in December 2015. 

  • Getting ready for the Post-2015 SDGs: Join the e-dialogue

    By Anuradha Rajivan on Monday, 20 October 2014

    The new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are expected to bring a stronger focus on longer-term durability of development gains as opposed to the current approach which sees decision-making targeted at the shorter term. At present, businesses main focus is annual balance sheets; for development organizations it is annual results reporting; and for democracies there's cyclical elections. 

  • Walkability—Building cities for people too

    By on Tuesday, 07 October 2014

    With the urban population swelling the world over, it makes sense that we start—or go back to—designing cities for people too. People are a city’s principal raison d'etre.

  • Environmental justice in South Asia goes green

    By Irum Ahsan on Friday, 12 September 2014

    “The law hath not been dead, though it had slept.” When Shakespeare wrote those lines, he never knew that many, many years down the road, he may actually be referring to the enforcement of environmental law by the judiciary around the world. 

  • Good governance central to Asia’s transformation

    By Vinod Thomas on Friday, 05 September 2014

    There is no universal strategy for pursuing a triple bottom line of high, socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable growth, but better governance is an imperative.

  • Impact evaluations crucial for effective public policy

    By Vinod Thomas on Monday, 01 September 2014

    Asian countries are increasingly turning to investing in dedicated development programs rather than relying entirely on economic growth to deliver better social outcomes. Evaluations of their actual impact have not always accompanied such decision making, but where they have, it has made a key difference.

  • Why partnering with the private sector is key to inclusive growth

    By Lakshmi Venkatachalam on Monday, 18 August 2014

    Over the past couple of decades, no one can deny that the Asia and Pacific region has represented a remarkable success story. Absolute poverty levels have fallen significantly and the region is on course to achieve a number of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

  • Storm Clouds Ahead – Disease in the age of climate change

    By Rooswanti Soeharno on Tuesday, 29 July 2014

    Rapid and dynamic changes in Southeast Asia including population growth and movement, as well as booming urbanization, have contributed to the complexity of combating the spread of tropical diseases. Now the region is faced with an even greater challenge: climate change

  • From Farm to Fork—Combating Asia’s Hidden Hunger

    By Bindu N. Lohani on Thursday, 24 July 2014

    Feeding the world is becoming an increasingly complex task. Providing all our daily bread—or rice—requires grappling with intense competition for natural resources, producing more from less land and dealing with changing dietary habits. But meeting food needs is not just about quantity. Quality is also important. Along with daily minimum calorie requirements, people also need vital micronutrients from their meals.  High levels of micronutrient deficiencies, a phenomenon we call “hidden hunger” remains pervasive, particularly in South Asia and Southeast Asia.

  • Preparing for life after the MDGs

    By Cyn-Young Park on Thursday, 03 July 2014

    The establishment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the United Nations in 2001 was a defining moment. It rallied a global effort in the fight against poverty, hunger, and disease, while promoting universal education, gender equality, and environmental sustainability. However, new challenges have emerged while remaining ones are complex. Meanwhile, the 2015 deadline for achieving the MDGs is almost upon us, raising the question: where do we go from here?

Pages