{"id":4786,"date":"2019-07-19T09:25:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T09:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icleiseas.org\/?p=4786"},"modified":"2019-07-19T09:25:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T09:25:00","slug":"vulnerable-to-climate-change-asean-needs-more-investment-into-green-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/2019\/07\/19\/vulnerable-to-climate-change-asean-needs-more-investment-into-green-infrastructure\/","title":{"rendered":"Vulnerable to climate change, ASEAN needs more investment into green infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was first published on The Scoop<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

MANILA \u2013 Over the next five years, ASEAN will need US$157 billion in annual infrastructure investment, but projects need to be \u201cclimate-proofed\u201d to mitigate the region\u2019s vulnerability to natural disasters and climate change, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).<\/p>\n

Due to Southeast Asia\u2019s geographical diversity \u2014 long coastlines, a large number of archipelagos, and heavily populated low-lying areas \u2014 the region has experienced a number of devastating weather-related disasters in the past decade, from hurricanes and flooding to wildfires and landslides.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Thailand and Vietnam made the list of top 10 of countries most affected by extreme weather<\/span><\/a>, both in terms of fatalities and economic losses, according to the Global Climate Risk Index 2019.<\/p>\n

But countries that are repeatedly affected by extreme weather disasters, such as the Philippines, also rank high in the long-term index, with single exceptional events, such as Typhoon Haiyan, having a lasting impact on the country\u2019s economy and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe analysis reconfirms earlier results of the Climate Risk Index: less developed countries are generally more affected than industrialised countries,\u201d the report<\/span> <\/a>read.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegarding future climate change, the Climate Risk Index may serve as a red flag\u2026 in regions where extreme events will become more frequent or more severe due to climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report claims that recent science has found \u201ca clear link between climate change and record-breaking precipitation of 2017\u2019s hurricanes\u201d, suggesting that severe tropical cyclones will increase with every tenth of a degree increase in global average temperature.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question is, what can infrastructure do to help you make sure that increases in temperature are kept below 2\u00b0C from pre-industrial times?\u201d said Rana Hasan, the Asian Development Bank\u2019s Director of Economic Research and Regional Cooperation.<\/p>\n

During a seminar in Manila last month, Hasan told media that experts remain concerned about the effect of temperature rise beyond 2\u00b0C.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are dealing with potentially dangerous situations li<\/p>\n

As the ASEAN economy continues to grow rapidly, infrastructure projects need to be more sustainable and climate-responsive to mitigate the effects of extreme weather events, Hasan said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We need] new types of infrastructure investment that can significantly reduce our carbon footprint, particularly in the areas of renewable energy,\u201d he said, referencing a recent US$7.6 million loan from the ADB to to help build a 100-megawatt solar power park in Cambodia.<\/p>\n

\u201cElectricity and heat production is one of the\u00a0leading sources<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of global greenhouse gas emissions as coal, natural gas and oil are burned for power.\u201d<\/p>\n

The transport sector is another industry which needs to see change by \u201creorienting the spending\u201d, Hasan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than building more and more roads, you might consider public mass transit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hasan noted that the effects of natural disasters and climate change pose a real challenge to the region\u2019s development, and infrastructure needs to be stronger and more resilient to climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore planning needs to take place. Windspeed and typhoons are growing in strength \u2014 which means if we build infrastructure according to standards set 40 years ago, we might be left with typhoons destroying more of our infrastructure stock.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ADB said it wants to help ASEAN governments scale up their green infrastructure, and recently launched a\u00a0new US$1 billion loan facility<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for investment into Southeast Asian projects.<\/p>\n

Hiroaki Yamaguichi, director at ADB\u2019s Transport and Communications Division for Southeast Asia, said that when mobilising investment,\u00a0a difficult balance needs to be struck between development, sustainability and climate resilience.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of ASEAN countries are affected by climate change, and people are really concerned\u2026 Many of our cities are not livable now and it will be worse in the future, we need to do something before it gets worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was first published on The Scoop. MANILA \u2013 Over the next five years, ASEAN will need US$157 billion in annual infrastructure investment, but projects need to be \u201cclimate-proofed\u201d to mitigate the region\u2019s vulnerability to natural disasters and climate change, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Due to Southeast Asia\u2019s geographical diversity \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4786"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4789,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4786\/revisions\/4789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}