http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/19Nov2007_news06.php

 

GLOBAL WARMING

Asia's growing oil palm farms seen as climate change threat

PIYAPORN WONGRUANG

A new global report on climate change compiled by a consortium of NGOs demands that closer attention be paid to the rapid expansion of oil palm plantations in Asia to prevent the region's already precarious environmental situation from worsening. The report, ''Up in Smoke: Asia and the Pacific,'' has revealed that the rapid expansion of bio-fuel production in the region might accelerate the exploitation of forest land, thus resulting in severe deforestation, which is second only to the energy sector in its culpability for carbon emissions, say scientists.

Indonesia, the third largest global emitter of carbon dioxide after the United States and China, already has a huge area of oil palm plantations covering some 60,000 square kilometres, while its government is actively encouraging further expansion, according to the report, which was launched in major cities in the region including Bangkok.

This would only increase emissions of carbon dioxide, not help reduce the gas in the atmosphere, the report said.

Asia has already experienced drastic changes associated with global warming. Over half of its population, including people in Thailand's coastal regions, are directly vulnerable to rising sea levels.

Less predictable and more extreme patterns of rainfall are also likely to emerge, putting small-scale farms in Asia, which account for over 80% of the world's 400 million farms, at risk, it added.

The report has called for a halt of forest clearance in the region to contain bio-fuel expansion.

It suggested Asian countries conduct an urgent assessment of the situation for the sake of food security, and protection of traditional livelihoods of local populations. It also emphasised greater cuts of greenhouse gas emissions by developed countries.

The report is a four-year review of international research carried out by a coalition of over 20 environmental and development advocacy groups, including Oxfam International, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Dr Saleem Huq, head of Climate Change at the UK-based IIED, has called on the Asian public to raise the issue of climate change loudly by exerting pressure on their governments to take urgent action to reverse the situation before the upcoming Bali meeting, where world leaders will meet to discuss possible ways to combat global warming together.

''Without this, Asia will continue to suffer, as will communities worldwide who are contributing the least to climate change but suffer the most,'' he said.

Anond Snidvongs, director of the regional climate research agency, START, said it was likely that the region would face the consequences of global warming projected in the report. Even a slight change in the world's climate could put certain islands in the region at risk.

Dr Anond said there was no doubt that extreme weather events in Thailand were influenced by climate change. Asian countries should re-address their stance on the issue because they are likely to suffer more than others. Adaptations should be addressed more firmly than before, he said.

''The fundamental thing is that we need to develop our own knowledge and human resources in this field so that we can negotiate better when we need to and get what we deserve. More research and studies are needed in the region,'' he said.

Asia-Pacific countries will hold a meeting in Bangkok this week to address their approaches to addressing climate change before engaging in the Dec 3-14 Bali meeting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7086048

Asia must act fast to lessen climate change-report

• Reuters
• Sunday November 18 2007

(Embargoed for release at 0001 GMT Nov 19)

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Asia, home to nearly two-thirds of the world's people, must take urgent action to lessen the effects of climate change but needs considerable help from rich nations elsewhere, a report said on Monday.

"Up in Smoke? Asia and the Pacific," the last in a series of reports from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) think-tank, appears just after leading scientists said the effects of global warming would be all-pervasive and irreversible.

"Wealthy industrialised countries must act first and fastest to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but emerging Asian countries also need to contribute to climate change mitigation," it said.

The report called for sustainable development policies including ending deforestation and promoting energy efficiency and environmentally sensible renewable energy sources, and said booming palm oil production posed a problem in this regard.

More than half Asia's four billion people live near the coast, making them highly vulnerable to rising sea levels from melting glaciers, and all are open to the vagaries of the water cycle affecting food production, it said.

"It has become clear that Asia will see some major changes as a result of climate change, and several of these are becoming evident already," Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) head Rajendra Pachauri wrote in the report.

"Even more compelling are the projections of future climate change and associated impacts in Asia," he added.

The IPCC, which won the Nobel Peace Prize this year along with former US vice president Al Gore, issued the leading scientists' warning that climate change was irreversible.

DIRTY AIR, POLLUTED WATER

The NEF echoed the message in its report on Asia, saying climate change was likely to have a dire effect on air quality and to increase the pollution and scarcity of water, while the rising population put growing demands on scarce resources.

The report said Asia contained nearly 90 percent of the world's small farms -- China accounting for half and India one quarter -- which produced much of the food but faced major climate change-induced difficulties.

"To cope with a changing environment, Asian small-scale agriculture will need dramatically increased support," it said.

The report, like that of the IPCC, is aimed at a meeting of UN environment ministers next month on the Indonesian island of Bali whose subject is climate change and how to deal with it.

The goal of the Dec 3-14 Bali meeting is to agree to start urgent talks on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on cutting carbon gas emissions, which expires in 2012.

Scientists say there is no time left for failure, either in Bali or in the global negotiations the Bali talks should launch.

"There are less than 10 years before global emissions must start to decline; instead, emissions from Britain and other wealthy industrialised countries are still rising remorselessly," the NEF said.

Officials involved in preliminary discussions say the mood about the Bali meeting is good, but many major problems remain and there is no certainty of a positive outcome. (Reporting by Jeremy Lovell; editing by Tim Pearce)

 

http://nationmultimedia.com/2007/11/19/national/national_30056590.php

Act before it goes 'Up in Smoke'

Lower Mekong countries, including Thailand, have been told to work together to minimise the effects of global warming and to better cope with the effects of climate change.

Published on November 19, 2007

 

The latest Asia-Pacific-region environment report to be released today says the lower Mekong area is "highly sensitive to climate change".

The report, "Up in Smoke: Asia and the Pacific", said the United Nations Intergovern-mental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) expected the lower-Mekong region would face more extreme weather events, as average temperatures had risen between 0.3 and 0.8 degrees Celsius over the past century.

The International Institute for Environment and Develop-ment report contains contributions from non-profit organisations.

Its foreword is from IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri and warns climate change could have a major impact on the region's ecosystems and biodiversity, hydrology and water resources, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, mountains and coastal lands and human settlements and health.

It encouraged governments in the four lower-Mekong countries - Cambodia, Laos, Burma and Thailand - to immediately take action to tackle the problems.

"Adaptation and mitigation measures are crucial and should be incorporated into future development plans adopted at the country level," it recommended.

"Up in Smoke" said a one-metre sea-level rise could flood 15,000 to 20,000 square kilometres of the Mekong River delta.

In this scenario, it said, some 2,500 square kilometres of mangroves would be lost and around 1,000 square kilometres of cultivated land and marine farms would become salt marsh.

In Thailand, rising sea levels could cause saltwater intrusion 40 kilometres up the Chao Phya, Tha Chin and Bang Pakong rivers.

The report warned that 10 million people could be affected when salt contaminated their main freshwater source.

Increasing aridity resulting from global warming will damage thousands of plant species in the country's tropical forests, it added.

 

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=407716&ssid=364&ssname=Miscellaneous&sid=ENV&sname=

UN envoy on climate change to brief Asia-Pacific officials

Bangkok, Nov 16: The United Nations secretary-general's special envoy on climate change, Han Seung-Soo, will brief officials from the Asia-Pacific region on recent developments in UN climate change activities here on November 19.

Han, a former president of the UN General Assembly, is travelling to the region two weeks ahead of the Bali Climate Change conference, which the UN hopes will set The stage for future climate change action on all fronts, according to a statement issued by the UN information services office here yesterday.

The briefing will be given at the fourth committee on managing globalization, which will be held by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) at the United Nations conference centre, from Nov 19 to 21.

The meeting is expected to attract more than 100 participants from across the Asia-Pacific region who will, among other things, examine a regional co-operation strategy for climate change, the statement said. The statement added that Han's briefing was coming at a critical time, with the latest report from the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) set to be adopted just two days before, and the Bali conference two weeks away.

It said the report, which took several years to compile and includes input from thousands of scientists from 130 countries, was expected to convey the IPCC's strong warnings regarding the urgent need for action on climate change.