Climate change

  • 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?

  • It’s time to listen to the scientists

    By Nessim Ahmad on Thursday, 22 May 2014

    The messages from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are clear—human induced climate change is happening, climate impacts on humans and natural systems will be significant, and dramatic mitigation needs to happen very soon.

  • No Impact Week ― the carbon ‘cleanse’ challenge

    By Anna Oposa on Monday, 24 February 2014

    Starting 22 February, Asian Development Bank (ADB) is holding its second No Impact Week challenge for individuals to cut their carbon footprint, following the success of the pilot event in January 2013.

  • ‘Double Dividends’ from better urban management in the Pacific

    By on Wednesday, 19 February 2014

    A new report by Asian Development Bank (ADB), Moving from Risk to Resilience: Sustainable Urban Development in the Pacific, argues that efforts to improve urban management in the Pacific can improve both the quality of life in the region’s cities and towns and, at the same time, build greater resilience to natural hazards and climate change-induced events.

  • Relief goods distribution in Barangay Tuog in Ormoc City, Leyte. Photo courtesy of Bundles of Joy.

    Aid in practice – mobilizing youth when disaster strikes

    By Anna Oposa on Friday, 06 December 2013

    For a lot of youth around the world, disasters and aid are just concepts—something they might view on television or read about online, but never actually experience first-hand. 

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