Malaysia’s Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, under the Department of Environment (DOE), says it has taken legal action against five palm oil mills so far this year and that it will continue to monitor other sources of pollution including 34 palm oil mills operating in Borneo’s wild Kinabatangan River basin.
Pesticides and fertilizers are being blamed for an outbreak of kidney disease in Sri Lanka. And similar outbreaks have been reported in India and Central America.
Thousands of people have been struck by a deadly new form of kidney disease in the country's North Central Province and the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health estimates that 15 percent of the population is affected. Most of the victims have been identified as rice farmers.
After publicly saying for years that sustainable palm oil markets would not provide enough demand, the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) has called on the sector to adopt green technology and environmental-friendly practices.
Asia's wheat and maize production will be severelyaffected by climate change as early as the 2020s — with potentially devastating impacts on food security, a new report warns.
Previous climate change projections have covered long periods: for example, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change focuses on predicting changes for the period 2050–2100. The new report — 'Food Security: Near future projections of the impact of drought in Asia' — focuses on the 2020s, and highlights the areas policymakers need to address immediately.
Vietnam has been playing host to delegates from 150 countries to discuss food security and develop agricultural policies to mitigate climate change.
“We are facing unprecedented challenges in the context of over-exploitation of natural resources, increased negative impacts of drought, flooding, salinity, a rising sea level and other environmental consequences that are directly caused by humans,” Cao Duc Phat, Vietnam's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development told the opening plenary session of the 2nd Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change
A somewhat contrarian piece of research suggests agriculture in Asia could benefit from climate change. Following numerous doom-laden reports on the effects of extreme weather conditions on populations and economies in the region, scientists from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) have predicted increased rainfall and temperature due to climate change could bring benefits to south-east Asian agriculture.
This contradicts the more common expectations that a warmer planet will reduce agricultural productivity in the region.
The Standing Committee of China’s National People's Congress (NPC) Monday began reading a draft law aimed at putting more emphasis on the role of the central and local governments in environmental protection.
The first revision since 1989 when China introduced its fundamental legal code on environmental protection — the Environmental Protection Law — the draft amendment was created after a four-year research project.
The lack of rains in large, monsoon-dependent, agricultural areas of South Asia has compounded concerns expressed in a recent report about an impending global water crisis and its detrimental impact on agriculture.
The Asia Development Bank is urging China to adopt a tough green taxation system if it hopes to meet its pollution reduction goals and promote sustainable economic growth.
In a move to get back on its feet following economic losses that were partly a result of its environmental disasters last year, the Japanese government is putting “green growth” at the core of its recently approved long-term economic revival plan.
The Embassy of Finland in Vietnam launched a project to back Vietnam's central Quang Tri province to deal with climate change's impacts in agricultural production, Vietnam’s state-run news agency reported on Tuesday.
Sustainable palm oil has finally been made available to Indonesian consumers, residents of the world’s largest palm oil producing nation and second biggest consuming market.
US-based agribusiness giant Cargill has signed an agreement with Indonesia’s Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) to establish the country’s first oil-palm teaching plantation.
Some 100 scientists from 15 Asian countries are gathering this week in Jakarta at an international symposium to discuss the connection between science and green economy, Antara news agency reported.
Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) and IBM yesterday announced a three-year research collaboration and signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) under which IBM researchers will work with NEA to develop advanced modeling and predictive capabilities to address key environmental concerns in Singapore such as air quality, extreme weather events, dengue outbreaks and food poisoning incidents.
Vietnam is in need of about USD7.6 billion in funding for environmental protection for all sectors and industries, said Dang Van Loi, deputy head of the Pollution Management Department under the Vietnam Environment Administration yesterday.
China will invest 175 billion yuan (USD27.5 billion U.S. dollars) from 2011 to 2015 to ensure the quality of drinking water in rural areas, a vice minister of water resources said Friday.
Environmental authorities have mapped out a three-year plan for the restoration of Bohai Bay, which was severely damaged by oil spills last year, China's ocean watchdog has announced.
China will steadily introduce a progressive pricing scheme for water use before 2015, according to a latest government water conservancy plan, Xinhua reported today.
Surging demand for palm oil in India for cooking and everyday grocery items is driving tropical forest destruction in Indonesia, Greenpeace said on Tuesday.
This report by the World Bank spells out what the world would be like if it warmed by 4 degrees Celsius, which is what scientists are nearly unanimously predicting by the end of the century, without serious policy changes.
Companies in Asia reveal expectations that regulations that could lead to rising costs for reporting and reducing GHG emissions will also be the main sources of climate-related business opportunities.
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