Showing 1 - 10 of 507
The hazard of lower interest rates
Oped, Published on 20/06/2024
» When interest rates decline and stabilise, financial-market participants tend to take on greater leverage and risk. The challenge for regulators, then, is to prevent those risks from becoming systemic and causing a broader economic crisis.
Is Asean ready to abandon coal?
Oped, Published on 14/06/2024
» Coal remains critical for providing secure and affordable energy, supporting economic growth, and enabling a just energy transition in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). Scrapping coal without prudent energy planning could drag Asean member states (AMS) into a self-inflicted energy crisis.
Improving the region's food safety
Oped, Published on 07/06/2024
» In a region with poor food safety standards, policy makers, the private sector and consumers in Asia and the Pacific must do better.
Asean needs ESG on climate change
Oped, Published on 05/06/2024
» The urgency of climate action hangs heavy over our planet. Asia, in general, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), in particular, the world's most densely populated region, are both highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and critical players in mitigating them alongside China and India.
AI can accelerate SDG in Thailand
Oped, Published on 30/05/2024
» We have just passed the halfway point in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Adopted by all UN members in 2015, the agenda laid out 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to mobilise efforts to end poverty, fight inequalities, and tackle climate change.
The 'billions to trillions' charade
Oped, Published on 23/05/2024
» The international development sector has become fixated on calculating financing gaps. Hardly a day goes by without new estimates of the funds low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) need to meet their climate targets and achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Decarbonisation needs joint effort
Oped, Published on 21/05/2024
» As countries around the world experienced record temperatures last year, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres declared, "We must turn a year of burning heat into a year of burning ambition." But to move away from fossil fuels and unlock the green transition's economic benefits, such as job creation and universal access to clean energy, industry leaders and policymakers must work together to translate the commitments made at the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai (COP28) into actual renewable gigawatts.
Green push needs united approach
News, Published on 20/05/2024
» Bridging the divide between agriculture and forestry is imperative for climate action. The global and national race is on to steeply reduce emissions over the next six years. According to the watershed Global Stocktake report, released ahead of COP28 in Dubai, we face the daunting task of reducing emissions by 43% by 2030 to retain the possibility of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century, and 27% to stabilise at a 2-degree temperature increase. Since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, we have managed only to be on track for a 2% reduction in emissions against 2019 baselines. Each subsequent year, we collectively feel the impacts of a hotter, more volatile climate as new records are set for temperature and natural disasters.
Stark reality behind economic figures
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 16/05/2024
» At the time of writing this, the official Q1 GDP has not been announced by the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC). I expect the growth figure will be around 1.2%. My own estimation, using the Output Approach and actual sectoral production index, gives a growth figure of 0.98%. Detailed data are in the below table.
A turning point for clean cooking
Oped, Published on 15/05/2024
» For most of her life, Florence Auma Ode cooked over an open fire in her Kenyan home. The resulting smoke coated the walls with a layer of soot and filled her lungs -- and those of her family members -- with particulate matter.