Letters | As climate change wreaks havoc, Asean is rising to the challenge
- Readers discuss the importance of an upcoming Asean forum on disaster resilience, the potential for China-Russia cooperation in tertiary education, and Japan’s plan to release treated radioactive water into the ocean
Climate change is sweeping through our lands and lives. Since 2012, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region has experienced more than 4,000 episodes of flooding, cyclones, severe storms, droughts and other climate-related disasters.
Given this, the Asean disaster management machinery had already been mobilised; it was the first entity to enact a regional agreement. The work programme of the Asean Agreement on Disaster Management currently covers 2021-2025, and supports the Asean Vision 2025 on Disaster Management.
However, if global warming carries on unchecked, these efforts alone will not be enough. Southeast Asian countries are projected to experience a 40 per cent increase in weather-related disasters by 2030, compared to 2015. The resulting damage could have a ripple effect on the development of the affected areas.
Asean, with its vision of being a global leader in disaster management and emergency response, continues to rise to the challenge. We have already learned from the Covid-19 pandemic how interconnected risks from climate hazards and non-climate factors have a cascading effect. While we have weathered the pandemic, climate change risks such as an upsurge in damage and loss due to disasters, food and water shortages and population displacement have been projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, if no action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Therefore, the capability of the region as a whole must be enhanced to contain these disasters and recover from their effects.
Asean member states need to embrace a more effective and holistic approach, to better manage future disasters. To this end, the Asean Disaster Resilience Platform, formed in 2021, is an innovative instrument that will bring Asean policymakers and relevant sectoral bodies together to focus on ways to manage disaster risks and build resilience. The whole-of-Asean approach could only be achieved effectively by working with cross-sectoral bodies including, notably, the Asean Political-Security Community, Economic Community and Socio-Cultural Community.