I forgot to post this earlier, my talking points when I hosted one of the "Asian Café" on climate change, EFN Asia Conference 2015 in Bhutan.
I don't have any picture during the small group discussion, here with FNF Regional Director for E and SE Asia, Siggi Herzog, and SWS' Mahar Mangahas.
See also:
EFN Asia 62, Program for Conference 2016, Manila, November 20, 2016
EFN Asia 63, Day 1 of Conference 2016, November 26, 2016
EFN Asia 64, Day 2 of Conference 2016, February 16, 2017
------------
Asian Cafe, Questions to be tackled:
1. How does climate change
(CC) manifest itself affecting people, economies and happiness?
2. What does current
evidence and projections say about the future?
3. What are some existing successful responses
to ensure resilience and adapt to changes, particularly from economic
development point of view?
Introduction:
the Philippines
(a) The Philippines is the 12th
biggest country in the world in terms of population size, 101 million people, July 2015.
(b) Archipelago, 7,100+ islands and islets.
Lots of active and inactive volcanoes. And
earthquakes too, average of around 3 EQs a day, though mostly too mild to be
felt only by seismographs, or they happen under the sea.
(c) Capital is Metro Manila, composed of 17
cities, with estimated population of almost 13 million. During weekdays, this
bloats to around 16 million as students and workers from neighboring provinces
and cities flock to the big city.
1. How does CC manifest itself affecting people and
economies and happiness?
After experiencing some huge storms and very
wet conditions in recent years due to the last La Nina, we currently experience
a big El Nino that affects the Philippines and other countries in the tropics.
So we expect drought conditions in the dry months of December-May. But it is
not the “Godzilla” of El Nino as reported in many papers, rather comparable to
the other big El Nino in 1997-98.
In a global survey on the Question,
“Which of these
issues is the most important for [COUNTRY] today? (HEALTH CARE/ EDUCATION/CRIME/ THE
ENVIRONMENT/ IMMIGRATION/ THE ECONOMY/ TERRORISM/ POVERTY/ NONE OFTHESE/ CAN’T
CHOOSE)”
Percent selecting and rank of environment (2010),
Source: TOM W. SMITH, NORC/University of Chicago. “Global
Environmental Change across
Countries and Time, 1993-2010”, Presented at the 2013
Research Session of the ISSP Meeting, Santiago, Chile, April 28 to May 1, 2013.
Published by the Social Weather Station (SWS), Manila.
So public awareness of climate change is low compared to
“gut issues” like healthcare, economy.
2. What does current evidence and projections say
about the future?
Current evidence and projections say that we
are entering the global cooling phase, after the global warming phase of the
last century. CC is natural (nature-made, not man-made), it is cyclical (warming-cooling-warming-cooling).
Source: Dr. Roy Spencer, Senate EPW Hearing: “Climate Change: It’s Happened Before”, July 19th 2013.
3.
What are some existing successful responses to ensure resilience and adapt to
changes?
Focus on energy, the
Philippines is putting up more coal power plants as we have the 2nd
highest electricity prices in Asia next to Japan, because of insufficient power
supply and various taxes and charges imposed on electricity. These new coal
plants will help expand electricity supply and help reduce electricity prices.
Many big Asian economies
rely heavily on coal and natural gas for their electricity needs. In
particular, these countries have more than 90% of their total electricity
coming from fossil fuel sources:
Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan and Bangladesh.
Electricity
production and sources in selected Asian economies, 2012
Electr.
Prodn.
(Bill. kWh)
|
Sources of
electricity (% of total)
|
Fossil fuel %
(1+2+3)
|
|||||
Coal (1)
|
Nat. gas (2)
|
Oil (3)
|
Hydro (4)
|
Others (5)
|
|||
Indonesia
|
195.9
|
48.7
|
23.2
|
16.7
|
6.5
|
4.9
|
88.6
|
Thailand
|
166.6
|
20.0
|
70.3
|
1.5
|
5.3
|
3.0
|
91.8
|
Malaysia
|
134.4
|
41.5
|
46.6
|
4.5
|
6.7
|
0.7
|
92.6
|
Philippines
|
72.9
|
38.8
|
26.9
|
5.8
|
14.1
|
14.4
|
71.5
|
Singapore
|
46.9
|
--
|
84.3
|
13.0
|
--
|
3.0
|
97.3
|
China
|
4,994.1
|
75.8
|
1.7
|
0.1
|
17.5
|
4.9
|
77.6
|
Japan
|
1,034.3
|
29.3
|
38.4
|
17.5
|
8.1
|
6.7
|
85.2
|
S. Korea
|
534.6
|
44.8
|
20.9
|
4.0
|
1.4
|
28.9
|
69.7
|
Taiwan
|
250.3
|
49.9
|
25.4
|
3.1
|
3.4
|
18.2
|
78.4
|
Hong Kong
|
38.8
|
70.3
|
27.3
|
2.1
|
--
|
0.2
|
99.7
|
India
|
1,127.6
|
71.1
|
8.3
|
2.0
|
11.2
|
7.4
|
81.4
|
Pakistan
|
96.1
|
0.1
|
28.2
|
35.9
|
31.1
|
4.7
|
64.2
|
Kazakhstan
|
91.2
|
76.1
|
14.7
|
0.8
|
8.4
|
--
|
91.6
|
Bangladesh
|
49.0
|
1.8
|
85.1
|
11.5
|
1.6
|
--
|
98.4
|
Bhutan
|
6.8
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
--
|
Source: International Energy Agency; ADB, Key
Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2015.
-------------
EFN Asia 62, Program for Conference 2016, Manila, November 20, 2016
EFN Asia 63, Day 1 of Conference 2016, November 26, 2016
EFN Asia 64, Day 2 of Conference 2016, February 16, 2017
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