Climate change

  • 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. 

  • Managing floods in a changing climate for a green future

    By on Thursday, 21 November 2013

    Climate change, population growth, and urbanization are bringing some of the greatest challenges of our time. Just a few days ago we experienced one of the most powerful storms in history, Super Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated the Philippines, killing thousands.

  • Photo: AFP/Noel Celis

    Disaster risk realities

    By Floyd Whaley on Thursday, 14 November 2013

    Preparation reduces the damage caused by typhoons, earthquakes and other hazards, but sometimes the power of nature overwhelms all

  • Estimating the cost of climate change in the Pacific

    By Cyn-Young Park on Monday, 04 November 2013

    The effects of global climate change are multifaceted. Pacific nations are highly vulnerable to the impacts, including intensified storm surges, cyclones, and rising sea levels.

  • Women ride past burning garbage in Cambodia.

    Pursuing green growth in the Greater Mekong Subregion

    By on Friday, 19 July 2013

    Picture this: rapid urbanization and massive infrastructure development and people trapped in outdated polluting transportation, escalating environmental degradation and deforestation, rising potable water shortages and food security concerns, extreme climate change occurrences and growing disaster risks.

  • South Asia again confronts displacement by Mother Nature’s wrath

    By Bart Édes on Monday, 20 May 2013

    Thankfully, the eventual impact of Cyclone Mahasen on South Asia was softer than feared before it struck land this past week. However, the storm still left dozens dead and caused the precautionary evacuation or subsequent displacement of one million persons living in coastal areas around the Bay of Bengal.  

  • Natural disasters in Asia and the Pacific. <a href="http://blogs.adb.org/sites/default/files/blog-natural-disasters-asia-pacific.jpg">View infographic in full.</a>

    Upping the game on disaster preparedness

    By Vinod Thomas on Monday, 22 April 2013

    The human and economic toll from natural disasters since global leaders met at the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 has been staggering. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction estimates that natural disasters caused 1.3 million deaths and $2 trillion in economic damage worldwide since then.

  • Properties built in a flood prone area in Popua Village, a suburb in the outskirts of Nuku'alofa, Tonga. Photo credit: Luis Enrique Ascui 2010 for ADB.

    Changing times: The challenge ahead for Tonga

    By on Thursday, 04 April 2013

    Climate change these days is the new development buzzword, and rising sea levels and drought incidences highlight the increasing urgency for action. Yet for some reason, there is disconnect between the high level commitment to action and the carrying out of projects that effect change. 

  • A fallen tree near a damaged railroad track in Pakistan. Photo credit: Gerhard Jörén 2010.

    Why don’t we act on the facts of climate change?

    By Susann Roth on Thursday, 28 February 2013

    I am not an environment or climate change expert, but I am an environmentalist out of conviction. When I was 14 years old I wrote a letter to the German Minister of Environment asking for faster policy action to reduce green house gas emissions.

  • The aftermath of Typhoon Ondoy in Metro Manila, Philippines.

    Why Asia’s growing coastal cities must invest in climate resilience

    By Nessim Ahmad on Friday, 15 February 2013

    Manila has the distinction of being one of seven cities globally judged to be at extreme risk from the combined impacts of climate change and climate-related disasters – and only Dhaka in Bangladesh is estimated to be at higher overall risk.

  • Beijing’s smog-laden skies obscure the Forbidden City in a thick orange haze. Photo credit: iStockphoto.

    The price of breath in Beijing

    By Lloyd Wright on Friday, 08 February 2013

    If a frog is placed in a boiling caldron, it will immediately jump out to safety.  If the same frog is placed in water, which is slowly heated to boiling, the frog will tranquilly remain and eventually die from overheating.

    This biological anecdote is frequently utilized as a metaphor for our political state of affairs over global climate change.  As the planet slowly heats and succumbs to gradual change we unwittingly accustomize without sensing the dangers that await us.  The lessons from this phenomenon also encompass the state of our cities and the transport sector.

  • Make migration work for the displaced

    By Bart Édes on Wednesday, 05 December 2012

    The 18th Session of the Conference of the Parties is nearing its end in Doha. Among the topics receiving attention is how to integrate migration considerations into adaptation strategies and programs. The International Organization for Migration hosted a side event on December 03 exploring the significance of migration in the context of adaptation to climate change.

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