Environment

Is Our Food System About To Collapse?

For the past few years, scientists have been frantically sounding an alarm that governments refuse to hear: the global food system is beginning to look like the global financial system in the run-up to 2008.While financial collapse would have been devastating to human welfare, food system collapse doesn’t bear thinking about. Yet the evidence that something is going badly wrong has been escalating rapidly.

21 May 2022
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Scepticism Over Indonesia’s Deforestation Pledges

As the COP26 climate change conference continues into its second and final week in Glasgow, a pledge signed by more than 100 countries to reverse deforestation by the end of 2030 has won widespread acclaim.Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Russia and Indonesia, which together account for 85 percent of the world’s forests, are among the signatories to the agreement, which also comes with a promise of US$19 billion in financial assistance.But while British Prime Minister Boris Johns

9 November 2021
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Economic Development Without Environmental Damage

Many people say that damage to the environment is a risk of development. Based on this belief, there is also the assumption that it is impossible that development without destroying the environment can be realized.

26 September 2021
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Indonesia Court Finds Jokowi Negligent

In a landmark victory for Indonesian environment campaigners, a court on Thursday ordered President Joko Widodo to clean up Jakarta's notorious air pollution, ruling that the leader and other top officials had been negligent in protecting citizens.The capital and its surroundings form a megacity of about 30 million people, which routinely ranks among the most polluted cities in the world.Experts have warned for years about the threat posed by Jakarta's smog to the health of resident

17 September 2021
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Humans 'Pushing Earth Close To Tipping Point'

Three-quarters of people in the world’s wealthiest nations believe humanity is pushing the planet towards a dangerous tipping point and support a shift of priorities away from economic profit, according to a global survey.The Ipsos Mori survey for the Global Commons Alliance (GCA) also found a majority (58 percent) were very concerned or extremely concerned about the state of the planet.Four in five respondents said they were willing to step up and do more to regenerate the global commons.The

17 August 2021
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One Hundred Years Of Destruction

On 1 July, the Communist Party of China (CPC) will stage a patriotic extravaganza to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding. Among the achievements it will celebrate is the Baihetan Dam, located on the Jinsha River, on the south-eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The dam will start operations on the same day. The CPC loves a superlative. It is the world’s largest manufacturer and exporter, with the world’s largest foreign reserves.

19 June 2021
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G7’s Alternative To China’s BRI Faces Obstacles

The global infrastructure plan announced by G7 leaders aims to offer developing nations a credible alternative to China's much-criticised Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – but it faces major hurdles on the ground, especially if Beijing's hiccups are any indication. United States (US) President Joe Biden was able to convince the G7 to sign onto the initiative, drawing allies into Washington's strategic rivalry with Beijing, under a plan titled, "Build Back Better Wo

17 June 2021
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Cities Worldwide Turn Off Lights For Earth Hour

Cities around the world were turning off their lights on Saturday for Earth Hour, with this year's event highlighting the link between the destruction of nature and increasing outbreaks of diseases like COVID-19.Starting off the event, at 8:30 pm the skylines of Asian metropolises from Singapore to Hong Kong went dark, as did landmarks including Sydney Opera House. The annual event calls for action on climate change and the environment, and this year, organisers said they want t

28 March 2021
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Tackling Indonesia’s Poverty With Palm Oil

Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation, and 10th largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity, has made enormous gains in poverty reduction – cutting the poverty rate by more than half since 1999, to 9.78 percent in 2020. Nevertheless, out of a population of 270.2 million, an estimated 26.42 million Indonesians still live below the poverty line.

16 February 2021
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RCEP Fails To Promote A People-Centred ASEAN

The signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on 15 November, 2020 marks a milestone for East Asian regionalism. It shows ASEAN’s determination to unify existing ASEAN+1 trade agreements and to showcase the bloc’s central role in regional cooperation. As former Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa noted recently, the RCEP was “a response by ASEAN leaders to a series of initiatives that did not provide for ASEAN centrality”.

5 December 2020
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China’s BRI Bank Lacks Transparency

The Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) opened for business in 2016 and rapidly established itself as a major multilateral development institution. It now aims to become the world’s leading financier of large-scale infrastructure by 2021. But the bank first needs to raise its game regarding timely public disclosure of its projects’ environmental and social risks.The AIIB currently has 82 member states, with a further 21 countries expected to join soon.

23 October 2020
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Eco-conscious Gen Z taking action

If there is one thing millennials are happy about, it would be transferring most of the ageism stereotyping they have endured over the past decade to the new Generation Z or Gen Z. Based on a 2018 McKinsey article titled ‘True Gen: Generation Z and its implications for companies,’ Gen Z is the cohort born between 1995 and 2010.

7 June 2020
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