The disruptions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic have emphasised the need to transform our economies and to restart economic growth by making it inclusive, green and fair.

Oceans cover more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface and about 97 percent of our planet’s water is in them. Of the tiny percentage of water that is not found in our oceans – about two percent – is frozen up in glaciers and ice caps.The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) noted that the oceans are a life-support system for the Earth and a global common that provide us with free goods and services, from the food we eat to the oxygen we breathe.

Climate change, driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), have caused devastating impacts on some parts of the world. This includes flooding, extreme rainfall patterns, increased heat and erosion in coastal areas, among others.

The world has been struggling with the COVID-19 outbreak which has already damaged the global economy, and ASEAN is not an exception.

While the world focuses on the COVID-19 crisis, climate change continues to advance. The consequences are devastating and becoming more so – and that includes for the pandemic response itself.There is no doubt that natural disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity as a result of climate change. This year alone, Australia grappled with its most destructive bushfires on record. East African countries have been battling the worst outbreak of desert locusts in decades.

The leaders of the Group of Twenty (G20) countries head to Osaka this week for their annual summit. United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres will address them before traveling to Abu Dhabi to finalise the arrangements for September’s UN Climate Action Summit. These meetings should set the world on course for the fastest economic transition in history.

Eco-conscious consumers are giving up meat and driving electric cars to do their part for the environment, but what about that plate of rice?Global rice farming, it turns out, could have the same detrimental effect on global warming in the short term as 1,200 average-sized coal power plants, according to the New York-based Environmental Defense Fund advocacy group.