Results for environment

The Ocean is an integral part of our climate discussions and cannot be spoken about in isolation, stressed Samoa's Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi at a high-level panel discussion event during COP24 in Katowice, Poland.

Tonga understands deeply the impact of environmental changes because they directly affect these islands, said the Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry, during a visit to dedicate two Forest Reserves at Tupou College this afternoon. Tupou College singers were a hit with their variation of the Mosquito song harmony "Zing Zang Zung Zoon".

The Earth today is more than 1°C hotter than it was in pre-industrial times, and the terrible symptoms of its fever are already showing. This year alone, back-to-back hurricanes have devastated Caribbean islands, monsoon flooding has displaced tens of millions in South Asia, and fires have raged on nearly every continent. Pulling the planet back from the brink could not be more urgent. Those of us who live on the front lines of climate change – on archipelagos, small islands, coastal lowlands, and rapidly desertifying plains – can’t afford to wait and see what another degree of warming will bring. By Loren Legarda

Least Developed Countries are calling on the global community to do more at the upcoming Climate Change negotiations (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, next month. Representing 47 of the world’s poorest countries, they are committing to fully support Fiji presiding over COP23.

Rising temperatures caused by climate change would be catastrophic for countries in Asia and the Pacific by the end of the century - unless countries work to mitigate it, says a report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) released last month. Crops yields in the Pacific region will be in decline by 2050. By 2100, “all coral reef systems in the subregion will collapse due to mass coral bleaching if global warming increases by 4 degrees Celsius”.

Identifying opportunities the blue economy offers to Pacific Islands, so that they can sustainably manage and conserve their ocean resources to benefit their economies and people will be the focus at the first high level Pacific Blue Economy Conference to be held on 23-24 August 2017, in Suva, Fiji.

In recent years, the world has become increasingly preoccupied with the catastrophic potential of global warming and other human-induced environmental changes, and rightly so. But one of the most serious risks has been all but ignored: the threat to human health. ...Determined opponents will question the science and criticize those who claim that human health is being jeopardized by environmental disregard. But to these critics I pose a question of my own: “Are you willing to risk being wrong?" By Shaukat Aziz.

We live on a parched planet. Subterranean aquifers, which amount to the world’s reserve water tank, are also running dry. If this continues, the consequences could be dire. Depleted aquifers near coastlines are prone to contamination from saltwater, rendering land barren...Subterranean aquifers should be the reservoir of last resort. If we don’t protect them today, future generations will pay a steep – or even an existential – price. By Yasmin Siddiqi, Principal Water Resources Specialist at the Asian Development Bank.

Important questions over massive environmental damage caused by site works for the Va'epopua 18-holes golf course and its associated commercial developments remain unanswered, in spite of fears that the project is killing the reef and endangering the health and fishing livelihoods of its coastal communities.