From trash-strewn pavements to street vendors packing meals in polystyrene containers, plastic waste is a constant menace in the urban landscape of Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital and the continent’s most populous city.
That image could soon change if the local Lagos State government manages to implement its recent ambitious ban on the use of polystyrene and single-use plastics.
The announcement of the ban on styrofoam boxes and single-use plastics, “with immediate effect”, by Tokunbo Wahab, the state’s commissioner for environment, took many Lagosians by surprise, especially those who earn a living in the informal sector.
“Styrofoam boxes are cheaper than reusable plastic ones,” said Cecilia Mathew, 20, who sells dishes of rice, meat and garri – or cassava flour – on the streets of the popular district of Obalende in Lagos.
“It does not make sense to put food inside poly bag [plastic bag],” said another food vendor, Funmilayo Oresanya, 43.
For environmentalists, the Lagos State move was a welcome one that could not only cut down on waste but also reduce carbon emissions.
But other critics questioned the feasibility of an immediate ban on such commonly used products, especially for businesses.
“It’s too sudden,” said Kehinde Bakare, 61, a polystyrene box seller. “There are people that are using it as a means of living so what will they be doing? How about the production people?” she said, asking that they be offered “substitutes”.
Nigerian fast-food chain Food Concepts, known for its popular restaurants Chicken Republic, PieXpress, and The Chopbox, “applauded” the measure, saying in a statement it was “beginning its transition” to end polystyrene boxes and encouraging its customers “to come with their own containers”.
Bakare Kehinde, a retired principal, holds various types of plastic plates in her store in Lagos. [Benson Ibeabuchi/AFP]
Action plan
Folawemi Umunna, co-founder of the NGO Initiative for Climate and Ecological Protection, said the decision to eliminate non-biodegradable materials was positive if Lagos State properly manages its action plan.
On his X account, Wahab published a video on Tuesday showing health workers carrying out checks in the city.
In 2019, Nigerian MPs passed a law banning plastic bags but it hit a dead end because it did not complete its legislative process. Other African countries have also attempted to ban plastic bags with mixed success.
But in Lagos, a megacity of more than 20 million inhabitants, the issue of waste management is key as rubbish regularly blocks sewers and evacuation routes, particularly during the rainy season, causing floods and encouraging the proliferation of mosquitoes, vectors of malaria, in stagnant water.
Nigeria is Africa’s second-largest importer of plastics, according to the German Heinrich-Boell Foundation, representing 17 percent of the total plastic consumption on the continent, and more than 130,000 tonnes of plastic ends up in Nigerian waters each year.
If nothing is changed, imports and consumption of plastics will exceed 40 million tonnes by 2030, it warned in a 2020 report.
Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) staff clean up waste from the roadside in Lagos. [Benson Ibeabuchi/AFP]
‘Socio-economic consequences’
Plastic microparticles are ingested by animals and can be found in human beings, said Temitope Olawunmi Sogbanmu, environmental toxicologist at the University of Lagos, pointing to the “non-degradable” nature of these materials.
But if the ban on polystyrene and single-use plastic is “good news” for climate and sustainability, Sogbanmu says she still worries about “the socio-economic consequences” of this measure on “those whose livelihood depends on this value chain”.
Climate benefits may be offset by the impact on vendors of food and water in plastic bags as well as waste collectors who are part of the informal economy in a country which is already undergoing an economic crisis with a tripling of fuel prices since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came to power in May.
The annual inflation rate stood at almost 29 percent in December.
“There will be more people impoverished and it will become even harder for people to get the basic things,” said Sogbanmu, who recommends the implementation of “strategic interventions” especially for the poor.
Environmental activist Oluwaseyi Moejho said the Lagos government took a bold step, but agreed that state officials must ask people what they want and how it can support them.
“There was once a Nigeria without plastic, and we survived it. It is very much possible,” she said. “I understand the convenience of plastics, it’s quite blinding, but convenience at the cost of our lives and future is too expensive.”
New report says climate change responsible for draining rivers, wreaking havoc on biodiversity and communities.
Climate change, and not El Nino, was the primary driver of the unprecedented drought last year in the Amazon rainforest that caused rivers to dry up, required deliveries of essential supplies to river communities and resulted in the deaths of endangered dolphins, scientists have said.
A report released on Wednesday by World Weather Attribution, an international network of scientists, showed that human-induced global warming was draining waterways in the world’s largest rainforest, killing hundreds of endangered dolphins and isolating millions of people who rely on the region’s waterways for food, transport and income.
Scientists studied events from June to November last year, finding that global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels had made drought 30 times more likely, producing the extreme temperatures that have caused water levels to slump to their lowest points on record.
The effects of climate change on the region are twofold, reducing rainfall, but also producing hotter conditions that evaporate moisture from plants and soil, increasing the severity of the drought.
While both climate change and El Nino contributed about equally to a reduction in rainfall, higher global temperatures were the biggest reason for the drought, according to the study.
All nine Amazon rainforest countries – including Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Peru – have been hit by the drought, which is expected to get worse after the end of the rainy season in May.
Battle for survival
The drought has had a devastating effect on people’s lives, with many forced to make long journeys to access food, medicine and other essentials. They have been dragging boats over dried-up sections of the Amazon River, according to Simphiwe Stewart, a researcher with the Netherlands-based Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and co-author of the study.
Researchers from the Mamiraua Institute for Sustainable Development retrieve dead dolphins from the Lake Tefe effluent of the Solimoes River that has been affected by high temperatures and drought in Tefe, Amazonas state, Brazil, October 2, 2023 [Bruno Kelly/Reuters]
Along the Amazon River, people have seen their crops wither and fish disappear. With travel impossible due to low rivers, they form long lines on riverbanks to receive relief supplies, the report says.
In Manaus, the region’s largest city, more than two million residents choked for months on wildfire smoke.
Researchers in Brazil said the low water levels killed at least 178 of the Amazon’s endangered pink and grey river dolphins last year. Thousands of fish have died due to low oxygen levels in the tributaries.
Point of no return
The report comes out after the planet endured its hottest year on record.
The Amazon is considered vital to tackling climate change because of the vast amounts of greenhouse gases that its trees absorb.
“We should be really worried with the health of the Amazon forest,” said Regina Rodrigues, a researcher at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil who co-authored the report.
Rodrigues pointed out that while the region has faced at least three other intense droughts in the past 20 years, this drought’s scope was unprecedented and affected the entire Amazon basin.
In Brazil, a major tributary of the Amazon fell to its lowest point since records began in 1902, with smaller streams virtually disappearing.
Researchers have said the drought could worsen forest fires, which when coupled with climate change and deforestation could push the Amazon more quickly towards a point of no return after which the biome dries out and ceases to be lush rainforest.
Institute for Public Health and Medicine archaeologist Jaime de Santana Oliveira squats near tool sharpening marks carved into stone on a rocky point of the Amazon River that were exposed after water levels dropped to record lows during drought in Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil, October 23, 2023 [Suamy Beydoun/Reuters]
“What is now about a one-in-50-year event would have been much less likely to occur in a 1.2-degree [C] cooler world. If we continue to warm the climate, this combination of low rainfall and high temperatures will become even more frequent,” said study co-author Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at the Imperial College of London.
The planet is closer than ever to the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) increase since pre-industrial times that nations had hoped to stay within to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, such as deadly heat, rising seas, flooding and wildfires.
Last year, British police were granted anti-protest powers following years of disruptive demonstrations by environmental activists.
A UN expert has warned that environmental activists face a “severe crackdown” in the United Kingdom and that peaceful protestors are the targets of “toxic discourse”.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders Michel Forst said he had received “extremely worrying information” about “an increasingly severe crackdown” during a recent visit to the UK.
“Regressive laws” were being used to give environmental and climate activists severe penalties, “including in relation to the exercise of the right to peaceful protest,” he warned in a statement on Tuesday.
“The right to protest is a basic human right. It is also an essential part of a healthy democracy,” he added.
Forst is an independent expert appointed under the UN’s Aarhus Convention, which provides for justice in environmental matters.
The UK is a signatory of the convention.
Activists of ‘Just Stop Oil’ glue their hands to the wall after throwing soup at Van Gogh’s painting, Sunflowers, at the National Gallery in London, UK, October 14, 2022 [File: Just Stop Oil/Handout via Reuters]
Last year, British police were granted anti-protest powers by the government following years of disruptive demonstrations by environmental activists.
But Forst said now peaceful protestors were being persecuted for the criminal offence of “public nuisance”, which is punishable by up to 10 years jail time.
Last month, a peaceful climate protestor who took part in a slow march for about 30 minutes was sentenced to six months in prison.
The expert stressed that before the arrival of these “regressive” laws “it had been almost unheard of since the 1930s for members of the public to be imprisoned for peaceful protest in the UK”.
He added that it was impossible to understand that some judges had barred “environmental defenders from explaining to the jury their motivation” for protesting “or from mentioning climate change at all”.
Forst also slammed the British government’s harsh bail conditions on environmental protestors.
He said, “Environmental defenders may be on bail for up to two years from the date of arrest to their eventual criminal trial.”
He pointed out that severe bail conditions could adversely affect personal lives and mental health.
Forst warned that environmental activists were frequently publicly condemned in British media and by politicians, placing them at heightened risk of threats, abuse and physical attacks.
This “toxic discourse”, he said, “may also be used by the state as justification for adopting increasingly severe and draconian measures against environmental defenders”.
Banjul, The Gambia — On a warm May day at a restaurant on the outskirts of Banjul, Lamin (last name withheld) outlined his plan to traffic rosewood timber from Senegal to The Gambia as he cleaned the meat off his chicken drumsticks.
“All of this has to be secret,” he whispered, trying to be reassuring about his almost decade-long experience in the illicit trade.
“Things have got more difficult recently, but it’s not impossible if you have the right contacts.”
For decades, timber has been smuggled by men like him from southern Senegal’s Casamance region into The Gambia to then be shipped to China. One of the most sought-after species is rosewood. Scientifically known as pterocarpus erinaceus, the crimson-coloured timber is in high demand by Chinese furniture manufacturers.
In 2012, the West African rosewood tree was officially classified as being on the brink of extinction in The Gambia. But the country, along with neighbouring Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, has continued to be among the primary suppliers of this species to China.
Since June 2022, there has been a regional ban on felling, transporting and exporting timber by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The Gambian government also instituted a ban that same year, but traffickers said they continue to work with Chinese businesspeople to smuggle the precious timber out of Casamance.
From 2017 to 2022 alone, China imported more than 3 million tonnes of rosewood worth at least $2bn from West Africa, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an international NGO.
Al Jazeera spoke to traffickers in The Gambia, posing as investors interested in getting involved in the timber trade. The traffickers revealed that the trade is still well under way and said 200 containers loaded with the timber sat in Banjul’s port, awaiting shipment to China. When reached for comment, the Gambian government said it was unaware of the presence of such containers.
Smugglers in Banjul showed Al Jazeera video footage of people loading rosewood logs onto a ship, saying it was a private vessel used exclusively for rosewood timber exports to China. According to Lamin, a container holds 80 to 90 logs, depending on their size. The older they are, the bigger the circumference and the more valuable they are. A full container can fetch more than $15,000. According to Lamin, traffickers like him can get up to $1,000 per container.
The process of exporting timber through Banjul’s port has become more difficult, according to the traffickers, who said obtaining export permits from authorities is no longer as easy as it was before. Private shipping lines, which used to be the main method of transport to China, stopped shipping timber in 2020.
“There is no way at the seaport yet,” admitted Secka, one of Lamin’s superiors, “but if you are getting into timber trafficking, you are supposed to have proper contacts in place.”
According to them, well-placed contacts within the port authority facilitate export procedures, which include permits and the deposit of containers, as do the police, who can greenlight the release of seized containers in exchange for what Lamin calls “tips”. Al Jazeera contacted the port authority and Gambian police but did not receive a response.
“You need to know people in the system, a backup in case you get caught,” Secka said, suggesting that authorities are heavily involved in the trafficking.
Sawed logs lie on the floor of a depot used by traffickers and exporters in Banjul, The Gambia [Andrei Popoviciu/Al Jazeera]
From Gambia to China
Accompanied by Lamin, Al Jazeera visited two depots in Banjul and its suburbs, both allegedly owned by Chinese businesspeople stacking the rosewood timber until they manage to export it to China.
One depot was filled with timber while another was empty. At the second location, several empty containers were stored, ready to be loaded with timber, while rosewood scraps lay scattered on the ground next to them.
“I need to operate far from the city. Here it’s quiet,” Lamin said.
Al Jazeera showed photos of the timber and the scraps found at the two locations to experts who said, “They very much look like pterocarpus erinaceus.” Satellite imagery also confirmed that logs have been stacked at the two locations over the past seven years. As the trafficker left one of the depots, a police officer jokingly inquired about the whereabouts of his timber.
When contacted about the findings, the Gambian Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources said it was unaware of containers with rosewood timber to be shipped to China.
A spokesperson added that “no permit to export rosewood has been issued to any institution of the government of The Gambia” and the ministry is not aware “of 1 cubic centimetre of rosewood entering the country”. The CITES Secretariat in Geneva declined to answer questions, citing “limited staff capacity”.
But an October 2023 report by the Washington, DC-based EIA confirms Al Jazeera’s findings. An analysis of trade data showed that the 2022 ban on rosewood trade has slowed it down but has not stopped it.
The report noted that the ban “appeared to trigger a rush for exports, in violation of the provisional suspension that had already been in force for three months prior to this notification”, pointing out that in July and August of that year, China imported more than 15,000 metric tonnes of rosewood from The Gambia.
Romain Taravella, an investigator with the EIA, was part of a team whose research on rosewood trafficking in The Gambia prompted CITES to adopt the regional ban — the strictest so far. The EIA investigation reported that from 2012 to 2020, 1.6 million trees were illegally harvested in Casamance and smuggled into The Gambia.
“[The Gambia has] never been a supporter of this regional ban nor a country that was acknowledging the need to have a ban,” Taravella told Al Jazeera. The EIA report also accused senior officials in the government of having been involved with trafficking during that time.
Prior to the ban, the EIA uncovered a well-organised system of misdeclaring timber in ports with traffickers falsely labelling the containers as peanuts or metal scraps. However, once the containers arrived in China, they were frequently declared as rosewood in import data.
Private shipping lines were the ones previously moving the timber to China. When the companies ceased such deliveries, Taravella noticed that the trade continued even after the ban came into effect, indicating the traffickers quickly adapted and found alternative routes.
“This means the system was very much well-oiled since before the ban,” Taravella said.
Rosewood import data from China from 2018 to 2023 obtained by Al Jazeera showed a 43 percent increase in rosewood imports from The Gambia in September last year, compared with the same month of the previous year and a 58 percent increase from pre-pandemic levels for the same month.
The CITES ban specifically prohibits the exportation and importation of rosewood timber, which essentially bans China from accepting rosewood imports. Al Jazeera reached out to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment but got no response.
‘Conflict tinder’
Most of the trafficked rosewood comes from the lush, green Casamance region.
For the Indigenous peoples of Casamance, the region’s trees — particularly its rosewood — are considered sacred. Haidar el Ali, Senegal’s former environment minister and one of Africa’s best-known conservationists, lives in Casamance and has dedicated his retirement to preserving its forests.
“The traffic still happens towards The Gambia, but there’s less rosewood now than before,” Ali said, explaining that the rosewood stock in Casamance’s border areas with The Gambia has been dwindling.
For more than four decades, a low-intensity conflict between the Senegalese government and the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) has plagued the region, making it the longest-running conflict on the continent.
The MCDF rebels have been fighting the Senegalese army for independence. The region – which is culturally, linguistically, and ethnically distinct from the rest of Senegal – was added to the country’s territory after independence from France in 1960.
Border villages in The Gambia like Ballen are full of refugees who fled Casamance decades ago. Most of these villages are made up of Casamancese refugees and Gambian locals, only different by nationality but not by ethnicity or language.
In the Gambian village of Kayanga, Fatou Camara was sitting in her house one day in April last year around lunchtime when a bullet penetrated a wall and ricocheted into her bedroom as gunfire was heard in the distance.
“We’ve been living this nightmare for over 40 years,” Fatou said, adding that last year was “more intense” than the year before. She doesn’t know if the bullet belonged to the Senegalese army or the rebels.
Local reports have said the illegal timber trade is a principal source of income for the Casamance rebels, funding the rebellion and earning rosewood the name of “conflict tinder” by the EIA and Geneva-based TRIAL International.
Most of the trafficked rosewood comes from the Casamance region in southern Senegal, where a secessionist conflict has been going on for decades [Andrei Popoviciu/Al Jazeera]
Dubious arrangements
Despite its impact on continuing the rebellion and terrifying the border population, the trafficking of rosewood has long benefitted from dubious arrangements with people in high places.
Under the two-decade tenure of The Gambia’s former leader Yahya Jammeh, the illegal trade with China as well as trafficking from Casamance reached its peak. During his tenure, Jammeh allegedly exploited the country’s resources, evaded taxes and directly funded MFDC rebels through his company Westwood Gambia.
Westwood was the only timber company licensed for exports from 2014 to 2017, reportedly playing a major role in the illegal rosewood trade.
Jammeh was ousted from power in 2017. A year later, a special commission set up by the new administration conducted an investigation into his assets, which revealed that Westwood’s monopoly on timber exports to China generated more than $45m in revenue during its three years of operation.
The commission also uncovered that Jammeh looted at least $363m in public funds and illicit timber revenue, but the real amount is believed to be closer to $1bn. To this day, neither Westwood nor Jammeh and his partners have faced any criminal penalties in The Gambia. Jammeh escaped to Equatorial Guinea after losing the 2017 election and now lives there in self-imposed exile.
TRIAL International has lodged a case with the Swiss attorney general accusing Jammeh’s partner, Romanian-Swiss businessman Nicolae Buzaianu, of committing the war crime of pillage.
The charge covers his alleged role in funding the rebellion in Casamance and exploiting Senegal’s resources for personal gain. The Swiss attorney general’s office announced in 2022 that it had opened an investigation into Buzaianu’s dealings in The Gambia, even requesting legal assistance from the Gambian government.
But when Al Jazeera asked about the status of the investigation, the attorney general’s spokesperson said there are no current proceedings against a Swiss citizen in that context, not clarifying whether the official investigation is yet to begin or has been scrapped.
If the case were to proceed, it would mark a significant milestone in international law because there is no previous instance of a conviction for the war crime of pillage. In the meantime, Senegal’s endangered rosewood continues to be trafficked into The Gambia with the perpetrators escaping accountability.
“We are being robbed of our future in broad daylight, and we are watching it happen,” said Kemo Fatty, leader of the advocacy group Green Up Gambia.
At least nine people have been confirmed dead in the pre-dawn disaster in southwestern Yunnan, with dozens still missing.
Rescuers in China have stepped up efforts to find dozens of people who were buried in a landslide in southwestern Yunnan.
The landslide struck two villages in mountainous Zhengxiong County in the early hours of Monday morning when many people were asleep, burying 18 homes and at least 47 people.
At least nine people had been found dead, according to state broadcaster CCTV, while two were pulled from the rubble and taken to hospital.
“The mountain just collapsed, dozens were buried,” a witness, named Gu, told state-owned television.
He said four of his relatives were among those beneath the rubble.
“They were all sleeping in their homes,” he said.
State news agency Xinhua said rescue workers were in a “race against time” to find those missing after a night of sub-zero temperatures.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered “all-out” rescue efforts.
The agency quoted Wu Junyao, the director of the natural resources and planning bureau of Zhaotong, which includes the affected villages, as saying the disaster “resulted from a collapse in the steep cliff area atop the slope”.
Hundreds of rescue workers including soldiers have been sent to the area, which is known for its steep rugged mountains that are covered with snow in winter. The two affected villages were built towards the foot of the mountains and more than 500 residents were evacuated after the disaster.
State media showed rescuers climbing over concrete blocks and collapsed roofs dusted with snow to find survivors.
Luo Dongmei was sleeping when the landslide struck.
“I was asleep, but my brother knocked on the door and woke me up. They said there was a landslide and the bed was shaking, so they rushed upstairs and woke us up,” 35-year-old Luo told the Associated Press news agency.
Luo, her husband and their three children were evacuated to a school along with many other residents.
Luo said she had been unable to contact her sister and aunt, who lived closer to the site of the landslide. “The only thing I can do is to wait,” she said.
Rescuers search through the remains of village houses to try and find survivors [AFP]
Yunnan is among several provinces in China currently experiencing bitterly cold temperatures, according to the National Meteorological Centre.
Last week, rescuers evacuated tourists from a remote skiing area in northwestern China where dozens of avalanches triggered by heavy snow had trapped more than 1,000 people for a week. The avalanches blocked roads, stranding both tourists and residents in a village in the Xinjiang region, close to China’s border with Mongolia, Russia and Kazakhstan.
There was no immediate official explanation for what might have caused Monday’s landslide. Zhengxiong County lies about 2,250km (1,400 miles) southwest of Beijing, with altitudes ranging as high as 2,400 metres (7,900 feet).
Landslides, often caused by rain or unsafe construction work, are not uncommon in China.
At least 70 people were killed in landslides last year, including more than 50 at an open pit mine in the Inner Mongolia region.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – From Malaysia to Singapore and the Philippines, second- and third-generation family businesses in Asia are charting a different path from their forefathers as they seek out greener and more sustainable investments.
For some millennial business heirs, the journey is smooth. For others, the gap between their comfortable lives – which gave them the space to learn about socially conscious “impact investing” – and their parents’ experiences of growing up poor has led to conflict.
Malaysian Abe Lim, 27, grew up under circumstances far removed from those of her father, who quit school as a teenager to work as a mechanic to support his family.
Lim’s father went on to build a business producing lubricants, soap and dish-washing liquid and recruited her into the company as a young woman in the hope she would take the reins one day.
But Lim’s youthful idealism soon clashed with her father’s traditional profit-focused business model.
“I wanted to do something more impactful. My father’s business was traditionally run where the focus is based on profits,” Lim told Al Jazeera.
“Instead of prioritising monetary gains, I wanted to prioritise social and environmental impact. This is something very new for the previous generation.”
While working at her father’s company, Lim suggested setting up a research and development department to explore turning plastic waste into biofuels.
Her father agreed and put some money into the idea.
“When it was shown scientifically that it is doable but economically not viable, he stopped,” Lim said.
Abe Lim clashed with her father over climate change [Courtesy Abe Lim]
Lim also disagreed with her father on climate change, which he dismissed as “Western propaganda”.
Lim ultimately decided to leave her father’s company and venture out on her own.
Her first enterprise, funded by angel investors, was a marketplace for used furniture that aimed to cut down on waste by promoting recycling.
“But we couldn’t sustain ourselves as the market wasn’t mature enough,” Lim said.
Lim also had to contend with superstitious beliefs about second-hand furniture that are prevalent in Asian culture.
“Some people think there are ‘ghosts’ linked to old furniture,” she said.
In 2021, Lim founded Purpose Plastic, which recycles discarded plastic into home decor, chess pieces, furniture, mahjong tiles and other products.
“We are profitable,” Lim said. “Our largest orders are always corporate gifts.”
Lim hopes that businesses will one day prioritise the environment over profit.
“I would never want to say it is impossible because I am hopeful it will happen one day,” she said.
“For businesses to be on board and participate in sustainable goals, there needs to [be] a form of incentive. Maybe that will get the ball rolling.”
In August, the law graduate stood for local elections in the state of Selangor on a platform emphasising policies to tackle climate change. While she was not successful, she is open to running again.
“For now, I want to be focused on growing my grassroots and expanding my environmental work. Being a politician is not just about being elected but about providing solutions for the long-term to support people’s everyday lives,” said Lim, who is a member of the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance, a youth-oriented party.
Catalyst for change
Komal Sahu, a member of the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network, said younger generations are reshaping perceptions among business owners by emphasising the need for companies to make a positive social impact.
“They recognize that their family’s wealth can serve as a catalyst for positive transformation, addressing societal needs beyond what government aid covers,” Sahu told Al Jazeera.
Sahu said second- and third-generation business heirs are embracing socially conscious investing to show that it is possible to align financial returns with social and environmental goals.
“By incorporating environmental, social and governance factors into their investment decisions, they advocate driving positive change while ensuring financial viability for their businesses,” Sahu said.
Still, Sahu said, it should not be assumed there is always a conflict between new and old ways of thinking about business.
“That is not always the case. … In some instances, the previous generations are the ones encouraging bolder and more innovative ways of thinking to ensure the ongoing success of their businesses or their philanthropic efforts,” she said.
Filipino Marianna Lopez Vargas, 32, is a case in point.
She is the partnerships manager of the Oscar M Lopez Center, a Manila-based climate change research foundation founded by her tycoon grandfather.
Oscar M Lopez, who made his fortune in telecommunications, energy and real estate, opened the centre in 2012 in response to an “alarming lack of funding” going into understanding the local impact of climate change and to develop adaptation strategies, Lopez Vargas told Al Jazeera.
Lopez Vargas said she considers herself “very lucky” to be part of a family and organisation that align with her own personal values.
Based on concerns about climate change, the family’s businesses made “a very bold decision” in 2016 to completely divest its power interests from coal and pursue an energy portfolio based on clean and renewable energy, she said.
Lopez Holdings Corporation currently has no existing or proposed coal-fired power projects. Its energy portfolio is made up of natural gas, hydropower, and geothermal and solar energy – although company bosses have admitted that a complete transition to renewables is not yet realistic because of the intermittency of solar and wind energy.
Marianna Lopez Vargas says she is ‘very lucky’ to be part of a family and organisation that align with her own personal values [Courtesy of Marianna Lopez Vargas]
“[It’s] quite ambitious at that time given a developing country like the Philippines that was heavily reliant on fossil fuels for its economic development,” Lopez Vargas said.
Lopez Vargas is confident that cutting out fossil fuels completely is achievable in time.
“It’s certainly a possible future with all the enabling factors and the right institutional incentives in place,” she said. “It is also a necessary transition but done so in a just, equitable and inclusive manner.”
For millennial business leaders, persuading the older generation to adopt new ways of thinking requires effective communication and a deep understanding of generational differences and perspectives, Sahu said.
“Hence, many second- and third-generation family businesses … encourage their elders to explore new ideas and embrace innovative approaches by engaging in open, respectful dialogue,” Sahu said.
Singapore-based Brazilian Fernando Scodro, 35, illustrates this point. He is responsible for implementing the investment strategy of the family office Grupo Baoba in Rio de Janeiro.
Scodro taught his family about socially conscious investing after attending a course at the University of Zurich that expanded his knowledge about investment possibilities.
“I translated the entire course into Portuguese for my family. It took me three months. They learned with me,” Scodro told Al Jazeera.
A number of years ago, Scodro’s father invested in CODNI, a startup in Brazil that helps other firms reduce their energy consumption, after seeing a good business opportunity in the profitable firm.
“I loved the business model of an energy efficiency company. It resonated with me,” Scodro said. “I told my Dad, ‘Hey, you are making an impact investment. You just didn’t know.’”
From the deepening conflict in Myanmar as a result of the 2021 coup to North Korea’s record years of weapons testing and confrontations in the South China Sea, it has been a busy year in the Asia Pacific.
Here are some of our most-read and must-reads from our original reporting in 2023.
Myanmar
More than two years since the generals seized power in a coup in February 2021, civilians found themselves caught in an escalating conflict, and targeted by a military notorious for its brutality.
Starting with satellite imagery of five villages burned to ashes in the country’s Sagaing region, Zaheena Rasheed and Nu Nu Lusan gathered evidence from villagers and witnesses to piece together what had happened.
“We have been working so hard for generations to build these houses and own this land, but they burned our homes and our grain in just one day,” one farmer told them. “They want us to become so poor that we do not resist them. I think they believe that if we are left with nothing, we would not resist. But they are wrong.”
At the end of October, three ethnic armed groups formed an alliance to begin a major offensive against the military in northern Shan state along the border with China.
Emily Fishbein, Jaw Tu Hkawng and Zau Myet Awng found Operation 1027, as the offensive was dubbed, sparking renewed optimism among anti-coup forces as the armed groups notched up early gains.
They have since made further advances from Shan state across to western Rakhine state despite a ferocious response from the military.
The fighting has worsened the humanitarian situation for many civilians, with local relief agencies providing assistance in the absence of an international response.
In Rakhine’s Minbya, a Rohingya woman told Al Jazeera she was living in fear amid relentless shelling and artillery fire.
“We can’t get out of Minbya right now. The fighting is all around,” she said in November. “I can hear bombing and gunfire every day, but I don’t know where they’re fighting. There’s no internet and the phone also often doesn’t work. I worry about everything.”
Rakhine has long been a troubled state. Home to the mostly Muslim Rohingya, it was where the military launched a brutal crackdown that sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing into neighbouring Bangladesh in 2017.
Cyclone Mocha caused devastation in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state [File: Sai Aung Main/AFP]
Many of those who remain are forced to live in camps where their movements are restricted.
These areas were hit in May by Cyclone Mocha, the most serious storm to hit Myanmar since Cyclone Nargis killed thousands of people in 2008.
Hpan Ja Brang, working with Emily Fishbein, were the first to report in international media of the devastation wreaked by the storm, especially in the Rohingya camps. You can read their report here.
Surge in trafficking
The Myanmar crisis has also had an increasing effect regionally – not just as a result of the generals’ refusal to carry through on promises to end the violence made to fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), but because the instability is driving criminality.
Kevin Doyle travelled up to northern Thailand and the so-called Golden Triangle where seizures of drugs including methamphetamine and heroin have soared since the coup.
Chris Humphrey, meanwhile, who is based in Hanoi, found a surge in the number of Vietnamese being trafficked into Myanmar and forced to work as sex slaves or in scam call centres.
And Alastair McCready went to Laos where he discovered the supply of methamphetamine had grown so much that it had become cheaper than beer.
The crisis in Myanmar has increased the regional drugs trade [Alastair McCready/Al Jazeera]
Vietnam
Hanoi-based Chris Humphrey heard foreigners were being held in Vietnamese detention long after they had completed their prison sentences. The reason? Unpaid court fines and compensation to the victims of their crimes.
At the time the story was published, nationals from countries including Malaysia, Cambodia, South Africa and Nigeria were being held beyond their sentences in sometimes horrific conditions.
“It’s terrible. It is prison after prison,” Nigerian Ezeigwe Evaristus Chukwuebuka told Al Jazeera. “I was seriously humiliated, locked up in a dark, stinky, small room without a toilet, and my legs locked up in bars for two weeks.”
Indonesia
For 30 years until May 1998, Indonesia was ruled by strongman Soeharto.
His departure, amid mass protests, brought new freedoms for Indonesia’s more than 200 million people, particularly its ethnic Chinese minority who had long endured government-sponsored discrimination and were often targeted for their perceived wealth.
Randy Mulyanto and Charlenne Kayla Roeslie spoke to five Indonesians of Chinese descent to find out more about those times and how things had changed.
Iskandar Salim told them that he used to struggle with his identity – feeling like he was not Indonesian enough but not fully Chinese either. Now, he is proud to define himself.
“I can simply say, ‘I am Indonesian, more specifically Chinese Indonesian’,” Iskander told Al Jazeera. “In the end, our identity is ours to decide and define.” Find out more here.
Staying in Indonesia, after Aisyah Llewellyn heard that school children had been caught up in tear gas fired by police at protesters on the island of Rempang – not too far from Singapore – she went there to find out what was going on.
She discovered a controversial plan for a Chinese factory to make glass for solar panels and develop a massive eco-city. The problem? Thousands of residents would have to move to make way for it.
“This is my home and this is where I want to die,” 80-year-old Halimah told Al Jazeera. “I love this place more than anything.”
You can learn more about the villagers and their determination to stop the project here.
A year after the tragedy at the Kanjuruhan football stadium in Malang, Llewellyn flew to the city to speak to the families of some of the 135 people who died.
The stadium has been demolished and will be redeveloped but the struggle to reform Indonesian football will not be so simple. You can read that piece here.
Phillip Mehrtens was taken captive by Papuan independence fighters in February [The West Papua National Liberation Army via Reuters]
And finally, the kidnapping of New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens by an armed group fighting for independence in Papua drew renewed international attention to the long-running conflict in the resource-rich region.
Here’s the story from Kate Mayberry. Mehrtens is still being held captive.
Military developments
Military developments were a key focus of the year, with North Korea testing a record number of weapons as it stepped up efforts to modernise its armed forces.
In September, leader Kim Jong Un made a rare trip out of his country, boarding his armoured train on a mission to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome.
Putin agreed to help Kim build satellites and officials showed off Russia’s military technology, In November, North Korea put its first spy satellite into the air – after three failed launches – and is promising more for 2024.
Experts say it continues to fund such activities by illicit means – from hacking to money laundering (you can read more on the ghostly North Korean restaurants that continue to trade in Laos here). The big question is what North Korea is giving Russia in return for its help. Weapons, probably.
Kim argues he needs to develop his country’s arsenal because the United States is deepening its military and political relationship with South Korea. The US, meanwhile, says it has to work more closely with Seoul and its allies because of the increasing threat from Pyongyang.
It is a similar story in the South China Sea, where Beijing has come into multiple confrontations with Manila in the Second Thomas Shoal and Scarborough Shoal.
To much concern in Beijing, the situation has pushed the Philippines closer to the US. Zaheena Rasheed travelled to the country to find out why. You can read that story here.
China
2023 was the year China emerged from years of isolation as a result of its zero-COVID strategy.
That policy meant relentless testing, isolation or quarantine camp. Erin Hale discovered months after the policy was lifted that many of the vast camps remained.
Meanwhile, in this story, Frederik Kelter reported many Chinese had struggled to recover from the trauma of zero-COVID and the abrupt decision to drop it following unprecedented protests.
“So many people suffered under the zero-COVID policy and so many people died when it ended,” Evelyn Ma told Al Jazeera.
The famous Kampung Baru Mosque’s bubur [Lai Seng Sin/AP Photo]
We also took a closer look at China’s growing influence in the Solomon Islands and the curious case of a shipment of what were said to be “replica” weapons from China.
The Asia Pacific is home to a wide variety of religions, from Buddhism to Christianity and Islam.
Raphael Rashid looked at how plans for a tiny mosque in the South Korean city of Daegu triggered a wave of virulent Islamophobia, which saw pig heads left rotting outside the building and protesters holding pork barbecues. You can read more on that story here.
We also reported on how Beijing is asserting control over religions, from Catholicism to Islam.
As Theresa Liu, a Chinese Catholic who follows the church in Rome, told Al Jazeera: “The government is trying to control everything about our religion – how our churches look, who our priests are, the way we pray. I think different religious groups all over China are having trouble with the government.”
People wave Chinese and Hong Kong flags, as Pope Francis arrives to attend the Holy Mass in Ulaanbaatar, in Mongolia in September [Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters]
On a lighter – or should it be heavier – note, Marco Ferrarese profiled the Taiwanese death metal band Dharma. Their unique selling point – their lyrics are actually Buddhist verses and nuns join them on stage.
In Malaysia, meanwhile, Ramadan is known for unique dishes that can only be found during the Muslim fasting month. One of them is bubur lambuk from the Masjid Jamek Kampung Baru Mosque.
Ushar Daniele and Bhavya Vemulapalli joined the mosque’s volunteer chefs to find out the secret to the creamy porridge’s popularity.
This year saw an increase in natural disasters the world over, from floods in Libya and New York and deadly wildfires in Hawaii and Greece – all very real effects of climate change.
Globally, there have been twice as many days where temperatures exceed 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) than 30 years ago, with this year being declared the hottest on record.
Malaysia is just one country that has been facing its own set of climate issues. In recent years it’s faced an unprecedented rise in temperatures causing heat islands to devastating floods, like the ones in 2021, displacing thousands as homes submerged under water.
Although the Southeast Asian state was once criticised for its contribution to global warming, caused by deforestation on land used for palm oil cultivation and more recently for its use of coal-fuelled power stations – it’s also been at the forefront of climate mitigation.
But its new minister for natural resources and environmental sustainability, Nik Nazmi, has said more needs to be done. Since taking the helm of his country’s climate change measures last year, he’s already said no more new palm oil plantations and coal plants.
Instead, he wants to increase electricity tariffs for the wealthy hoping to direct them towards alternative energy, while continuing to subsidise electricity and fuel for the less well-off.
Ultimately, steering his country towards a more sustainable way of living, he says, cannot be achieved through governmental policies alone, but through changing mindsets and returning to shared human values.
Here’s more from Al Jazeera’s conversation with Nik Nazmi, Malaysia’s minister for natural resources and environmental sustainability:
Al Jazeera: Can you tell us more about Malaysia’s climate adaptation plan and when it’s expected to come into action?
Nik Nazmi: Our target is for the National Adaptation Plan and the Climate Change Act to be ready by 2025.
It’s a multifaceted approach that will deal with creating infrastructure.
In recent years we’ve faced flooding, so we are trying to move away from impermeable surfaces like concrete and tarmac and towards other breathable materials. We also want to build more homes and services further inland – because Malaysia is a mountainous country overall, people tend to be pushed to live near the coast or the river basins, but that also means a lot of people are then exposed if there’s a major sea level rise.
In the last few years, the level of heat has been much higher than usual. We noticed temperatures can be lower in green spaces compared to built-up areas – by as much as 6C (42.8F). We are planning our cities using a nature-based approach, by planting more greenery and parks. We are trying to slowly move and change so that ultimately we can overcome the urban heat island effect.
Al Jazeera: Would you say Malaysia’s production of palm oil – the country’s top crop for three decades – is contributing to this rise in global temperatures, as a leading contributor to deforestation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions?
Nazmi: It may have been at one time, but that isn’t the case now.
In Malaysia, most of our plantations, [98 percent] are covered, even the smallholders are covered, under the Sustainable Palm Oil initiative. It’s a move that has been recognised, even by international studies, in significantly decreasing deforestation from palm oil.
Yes, we have a very widespread sustainable palm oil industry, but there is a limit to the size of our palm oil plantations. Both the timber industry and the palm oil industry in Malaysia are very much regulated.
There are no new plantations planned.
Palm oil production is thought to be a leading contributor to the effects of climate change [Binsar Bakkara/AP Photo]
Al Jazeera: But hasn’t the State of Kelantan been giving out concessions encouraging more palm oil production? Is the federal government trying to stop it?
Nazmi: Under our Constitution, the state authority is in charge of land and forests, and the federal government regulates and coordinates it.
If there has been an issue in Kelantan where the environmentally sensitive areas have been deconstructed, and this includes areas of permanent forest reserves which are going to be given to a palm plantation, then they will not get the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil certification.
Our Sustainable Palm Oil initiative has been a major element in protecting the forest, and it’s something we don’t get enough recognition for.
The Sustainable Palm Oil initiative has made a huge difference, but so has our Sustainable Forest Management Programme. This looks at ways to protect the forest and allow it to redevelop, to regrow.
We are a federation with land and forests all under state control. We give state governments a certain amount of money for them to reserve their forests. The amount is based on how large the size of the forest that they continue to maintain is, whether they continue to add to forest reserves, or whether they do any other initiatives to improve that.
We used to pay 70 million ringgit a year [$15m], but last year – 2022-2023 – we managed to increase it to 150 million ringgit [$32m]. And for 2024, the Prime Minister has already announced in the budget 200 million ringgit [$42.9m]. So that’s a massive amount.
Is it enough? It’s not enough, but it’s a good start. We’ve also had a national Forestry Act, which was passed in 2022. This means that for state governments, they have to do public inquiries before they can work on any forests. They also have to instantly replace those forests, by replanting.
Those are all the things that we tried to do in order to make sure that we protect our greatest asset – the forest.
Al Jazeera: What about the wildlife within the forests? Al Jazeera has covered the near extinction of the Malayan Tiger before – there are now thought to now be less than 100.
Nazmi: We have several measures in place here.
First, it’s about dealing with the fragmentation of habitats, the loss of wildlife corridors, right? If you build a road through a forest, or if you build a plantation in that, then it will affect the wildlife. You may still maintain a decent size of forest cover, but if you split it up, then you know, animals like elephants and tigers, they need a huge range to travel. So we are trying to keep the forest intact as much as possible.
Yes, there are still some roads and rail, but it’s limited. Places where it’s impossible for us to not have that infrastructure, we are building wildlife crossings – safe spaces for animals to cross roads and rail tracks – that’s in the works.
The Malaysian government says it has measures in place to protect the forests’ wildlife [Saeed Khan/AFP]
There’s also an ASEAN initiative called the Heart of Borneo, which covers the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, but also Brunei and Kalimantan, Indonesia. So it’s basically the North East centre of Borneo that is a protected nature reserve, where you have pygmy elephants and orangutans.
And lastly, we also have an internationally acclaimed programme of Community Rangers, where we work with military veterans and Indigenous tribes – because they know how to move in the jungle. They help to put boots on the ground to deal with poachers, illegal mining and deforestation. They’ve been very effective from our studies, in terms of helping to protect our tigers and elephants and other wildlife.
Al Jazeera: Malaysia is the third-largest producer of solar panels globally, and despite falling costs of solar technology, adoption rates in Malaysia remain low, why is that?
Nazmi: It’s because our electricity is so cheap, it’s one of the cheapest in the region. Although our salaries are probably higher than many countries in the region, the tariffs are among the lowest and the subsidies are very high.
In the past, you know, the government wanted to attract investors, and cheaper electricity helped that, and the people working for these companies, also had subsidised electricity. That won’t encourage people to install solar and other things, because it’s just cheaper to get it from the grid.
But since I took over in December last year, we’ve gradually increased the tariffs for electricity for both the bigger businesses and also for factories – but also for richer households.
The idea is that the subsidies should be targeted, more for the poor, and maybe some of the middle class, but certainly not the rich. They are the biggest consumers, using air conditioners, clothes dryers and swimming pools. So it’s totally unfair.
We have shifted away from that, and we’ve seen the clamour for solar has increased tremendously, even for businesses now. It’s partly because of new regulations with regard to sustainability, but also because now the electricity bills are higher, they complain, obviously. But after a while, then they started doing energy efficiency and installing solar. I mean, that makes economic sense. So I think we will see that to be growing tremendously over the next few years.
Al Jazeera: Isn’t the electricity in Malaysia mainly generated by coal? Why is coal still being used there when other countries have moved away from it? And is anything being done to reduce its use?
Nazmi: Recent data shows that in 2021 we’ve passed the peak of coal usage.
At the point of independence [from the British in 1957], a lot of our energy came from diesel power plants. And then when we had the increase in oil prices [in the 1970s], we started to use more coal – remember this is before we had hydroelectricity. Coal continued to become more popular in the early 2000s, because of price issues at the time.
But now, we’ve declared that there’ll be no more new coal plants in Malaysia.
The challenge – that we accept – is the economics of it all, because, unlike many Western countries, our coal plants in Asia tend to be younger. So when you want to talk about retirement, it is much more expensive than in other countries.
We know that it’s a dirty fuel – and that’s why we’ve said no new coal plants, and that’s why we are looking at ways to reduce the carbon from coal.
It has to be done in a just and proper way so that the burden is not then placed on ordinary Malaysian consumers.
We are also seeking a request for information to get ideas on how to reduce carbon emissions from coal from early retirement of coal plants, but that’s still challenging.
We’ve seen what Indonesia is trying to do and Vietnam is working on it, as well as the Philippines. We are looking at mothballing, it’s what Germany and China did. Or even co-firing, either with ammonia or biomass, so you reduce emissions or move from brown to green – so rather than coal, you can give the same company a licence to use solar or other forms of green energy and slowly reduce.
More than 40 percent of Malaysia’s total energy consumption comes from transport [Mohammed Rasfan/AFP]
Al Jazeera: Talking about ordinary Malaysian consumers, they have the highest rates of per capita private vehicle ownership in the region: More than 40 percent of Malaysia’s total energy consumption comes from transport – are there plans to turn this around?
Nazmi: Public transport is of course the best way forward. In KL [Kuala Lumpur], we are adding a second line for the MRT [Mass Rapid Transit], a major connector for the various rail lines in the city, and then there’s the Light Rail Transit [LRT].
But at the same time, we also recognise that we need to look at EVs [electric vehicles] because people still need cars, and not everyone lives in areas with a developed public transportation system.
Al Jazeera: Is anything being done to change mindsets? To get more people willing to jump on a bus or a train, instead of taking their own private cars?
Nazmi: Yes of course. Fuel here is heavily subsidised, but if you drive a huge, luxury car, like a Porsche, or BMW, you actually get more subsidies than the guy who rides a motorbike, so that’s problematic and that’s why we are working towards fuel subsidies to be targeted, where only the poor, and maybe some of the middle classes can be given assistance.
So changing attitudes and habits. It’s not just about going for an EV, because the way you charge cars is different and needs the infrastructure, the charging stations.
It also requires a lot of political will, and the government is working on that. We are trying to push both EV and public transport to go hand in hand slowly.
Al Jazeera: You were at COP28 this year and you’ve said the Loss and Damage Fund should do more to reduce the burden on all developing countries – can you tell me more?
Nazmi: The definition that is always mentioned, is it should be reserved for least developed countries and small island states, and definitely they need it, I do not question that.
But to limit it to those countries alone… If you make it so small, then it makes it meaningless.
In Malaysia, we have a huge impact from climate change. Yes, we are middle income, even perhaps high middle income. But, you should also look at the fact that Southeast Asia is a major victim of climate change – that makes it in the same category as small island nations, right?
Pakistan, Bangladesh, even Libya are not eligible. And of course, they have been massively suffering from floods and various calamities – and I think that’s a problem.
As for the money that’s been promised, the pledge, it’s been mentioned since 2009. The 2015 Paris Agreement, stated $100bn a year from the developed world, right? We are now nearing $1 trillion, that should be the case right now, but we have $80bn – so there’s a huge pledge, but there’s always a shortage of money in the bank.
We are not just speaking on behalf of Malaysia, but we’re looked at as being one of the voices of the developing world, and we want to champion that.
Al Jazeera: You’ve also mentioned the need for a global stocktake – why is that important?
Nazmi: The global stocktake under the UNFCCC is important for us to assess the collective progress of implementing climate actions so that we can achieve the objectives under the Paris Agreement.
For us, the science is clear, we can see climate change happening in front of our eyes. And obviously, many countries have announced their targets, the pledges, so it’s important to have the global stocktake, to see where we are at.
So we don’t delude ourselves, and we can understand the urgency of achieving our goals, and to see what more needs to be done. Business as usual is not an option.
The next step is the principle of equity, you know, common but differentiated responsibility, countries that have done this, they have not only torched their own forests, but they’ve also razed our own forests, for hundreds of years and become rich out of it. It’s time some of the developed world nations busy expanding their own oil fields stopped lecturing and implemented climate measures.
Al Jazeera: How do you ensure that all this work that you’re doing, at governmental level, is implemented at the grassroots levels as well?
Nazmi: There’s this nice quote by this American environmental lawyer, Gus Speth, where he mentioned that he used to think that the problem, the planetary crisis that we are experiencing, is as a result of climate change, biodiversity loss, but it’s actually an issue of selfishness and spirituality.
That’s the heart of it, right, and that’s what needs to be addressed at the grassroots level. At the same time, you have the poor, who are not even getting basic energy, basic water to survive, and you have the rich who are living beyond the limit. So I think working towards a “spiritual and cultural transformation”, as Speth suggested, is what’s most needed.
In a country like Malaysia, religion is important across the board, whether you’re Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist – so finding common values to deal with climate change, will work towards living in a more sustainable world, it’s important.
We’ve launched several awareness campaigns addressing these values, using language and ideas that are universally understood – very basic values, like how to be more mindful and not being wasteful, these are concepts encouraged by all faiths, right.
On a hillside overlooking cabbage fields outside the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, a drone’s rotors begin to whir, lifting it over a patch of forest.
It moves back and forth atop the rich canopy, transmitting photos to be knitted into a 3D model that reveals the woodland’s health and helps estimate how much carbon it can absorb.
Drones are part of an increasingly sophisticated arsenal used by scientists to understand forests and their role in the battle against climate change.
The basic premise is simple: woodlands suck in and store carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that is the largest contributor to climate change.
But how much they absorb is a complicated question.
A forest’s size is a key part of the answer – and deforestation has caused tree cover to fall 12 percent globally since 2000, according to Global Forest Watch.
But composition is also important: different species sequester carbon differently, and trees’ age and size matter, too.
Knowing how much carbon forests store is crucial to understanding how quickly the world needs to cut emissions, and most current estimates mix high-level imagery from satellites with small, labour-intensive ground surveys.
“Normally, we would go into this forest, we would put in the pole, we would have our piece of string, 5 metres [16.4 feet] long. We would walk around in a circle, we would measure all the trees in a circle,” explained Stephen Elliott, research director at Chiang Mai University’s Forest Restoration Research Unit (FORRU).
“[But] if you’ve got 20 students stomping around with tape measures and poles … you’re going to trash the understory,” he said, referring to the layer of vegetation between the forest floor and the canopy.
That is where the drone comes in, he said, gesturing to the Phantom model hovering overhead.
Manila, the Philippines – After typhoon Doksuri battered the Philippines earlier this year, pastor Thaad Samson waded through waist-high waters while going door to door to check on his neighbours.
Seventeen towns in his home province of Bulacan were paralyzed by days of flooding after the typhoon hit the archipelago in July.
When the rains began, Samson’s parish was unfazed since it sits on land “as high as the tip of a cathedral”, but it wasn’t long before residents were crying out for help, Samson told Al Jazeera.
“The towns which didn’t used to experience flooding are now getting a taste of it,” Samson said.
Samson blames reclamation projects in the region for his community’s sudden vulnerability to extreme weather.
“This is not just my opinion, it’s a scientific fact,” he said.
In 2017, the Philippine government spearheaded 13 land reclamation projects along Manila Bay, spanning five provinces including Metro Manila and Bulacan.
While civil society groups and lawmakers sounded the alarm about potential harm to the environment, Manila pointed to massive expenditures on climate-related projects aimed at offsetting the risks and negative effects of large-scale development.
For environmental advocates like Samson, though, Manila’s climate spending is nothing more than an attempt to greenwash environmentally damaging development projects like reclamation.
“They are destroying mangroves across 15,000 hectares of water. I don’t see how that protects us from climate change especially when flood levels have been rising in nearby areas,” Samson said.
Environmental activists in the Philippines have criticised the government’s land reclamation efforts [Neil Ambion/Al Jazeera]
The Philippines experiences 20 typhoons annually. According to the World Bank, flooding caused by typhoons has resulted in about 30,000 deaths during the past three decades in addition to massive economic losses.
Since 2009, climate-related spending by the Philippine government has ballooned, with most expenditure funnelled towards infrastructure.
According to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), “climate actions have been mainstreamed and institutionalised in our development plan and the National Budget. This resulted in a significant increase in the budget for climate change adaptation and mitigation measures by about 60 percent compared to the previous year’s allocation”.
For 2024, the Philippines has proposed allotting 543.45 billion pesos ($9.74bn) for climate expenditures, a 17 percent increase in spending from the current year, which was already 60 percent higher than 2022.
Climate expenditures account for 9.4 percent of the country’s total budget, with the DBM proudly touting that the number exceeds the country’s 8 percent commitment under the latest Philippine Development Plan.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr remarked in November that economic development hinges on recognising the country’s vulnerability to climate change.
“It is the basis on which we have to act for the future, on which we have to design our systems. We have to keep climate change in mind,” Marcos said.
Around 461.5 billion pesos ($8.27bn), or 84.9 percent of spending, has been earmarked for flood control or railways, with much of the formerly related land reclamation in Manila Bay and the latter touted as a means of reducing carbon emissions.
Despite being tagged as climate spending, critics query whether such expenditure has more to do with supporting the government’s policy agenda than the climate and whether it may in fact be doing more damage to ecosystems.
“Our country’s entire climate program is pure lip service,” Arlene Brosas, assistant minority leader in the Philippine House of Representatives, told Al Jazeera.
“When the world asks what the Philippines is doing about climate change, we will have new trains and inept flood control to show for it, plus significantly less mangroves and farmlands,” Brosas added.
Climate spending disbursed through Special Purpose Funds (SPFs), which allocate money under broad categories of use rather than specific projects, is an emerging trend in the Philippines, according to Brosas, who argues the funds are corruption-prone and an example of “climate pork” doled out “for those uninterested in actual results”.
The Philippines is spending billions of dollars on controversial climate mitigation schemes, including land reclamation [Mike Olea/Al Jazeera]
Under the government’s plans, SPFs intended for climate mitigation and adaptation are set to increase in size next year by about 68 percent compared to the current allocation, reaching 22.47 billion pesos ($400m).
Still, Manila is unable to say how the money will be spent apart from supporting adaptation and mitigation efforts by government corporations and local governments.
University of the Philippines Professor Timothy Cipriano, an environmental geographer with the national research group AGHAM, said the climate spending label is “technically accurate” but distracts from better solutions to climate change.
“Using infrastructure as a climate change solution is antiquated. Too often in the Philippines, we see adaptation projects drain the water from certain areas only to divert flooding to another community,” Cipriano told Al Jazeera.
Cipriano said that reclamation projects in Manila Bay have impeded the release of water into the bay during heavy rains, causing increased water retention.
He said the government is using flood control projects to mitigate risks of their own creation.
The Manila Bay reclamation initiative also compromises mangroves along the Sasmuan Pampanga Coastal Wetland, a 3,500-hectare threatened area noted for its “international importance” under Ramsar Convention standards.
“The more we replace natural defences with infrastructure, the more we pay the price. Engineering interventions are limited. We’ve been doing this for years and flooding problems aren’t getting any better,” Cipriano said.
But last week, Marcos said that the country’s current El Nino conditions show the need for the speedier implementation of projects to lessen the effects of climate change.
“We will accelerate the building of dams and flood control projects,” Marcos said.
The government is also providing the Department of Transportation (DOTr) with 163.7 billion pesos ($2.93bn) worth of climate funds for railway development.
The allocation amounts to 76.4 percent of next year’s transport budget and is a 55.3 percent increase from the current year’s railway spending.
According to a 2022 assessment by the Asian Development Bank, construction for the big-ticket, Japan-funded 873 billion pesos ($15.64bn) North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) project, “will generate significant greenhouse gas emissions” averaging “508,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year for 7 years”.
The benefits of emission reduction will only be seen by 2040, according to the development bank.
Along with the Metro Manila subway, the NSCR is one of the administration’s more ambitious mass transport undertakings. DOTr chief Jaime Bautista has lauded the NSCR as economically transformational and touted investment in rail as critical to reducing emissions.
“The completion of the full NSCR line will bring greater convenience for our commuters. It will offer an efficient and comfortable transport alternative that spans a great distance,” Bautista said in October.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s green bona fides have been questioned by environmental activists [Mike Olea/Al Jazeera]
Cipriano cautioned against viewing railways as a green investment in the absence of a major shift to renewable energy in mass transportation.
“We have to be careful in tagging railways as green. They produce less carbon emissions but how do we produce the electricity? The Philippines is already heavily reliant on fossil fuels,” Cipriano said.
Meanwhile, the think-tank Center for Energy, Ecology and Development has estimated that investments in fossil fuel energy sources between April 2022 and March 2023 reached 1.7 billion pesos ($30m).
Brosas accused the government of using the climate tag to attract foreign funding and loans. In 2017, over $200bn of Metro Manila’s infrastructure-heavy flood management program was funded by the World Bank.
According to the National Economic Development Authority database, the DOTr has secured 1.7 trillion pesos ($30bn) worth of overseas development from Japan for five key railway projects.
“The administration erroneously thinks that big-ticket construction with large sums from abroad will fix the environment. But really, it’s just a business manoeuvre,” Brosas said.
Brosas raised concerns about the financial and social costs of the projects.
“For the next five years of constructing these projects, we will be neck deep in even more debt,” she said. “We’re breaking ground without considering the eviction of hundreds of thousands of families.”
Around 220,000 families are expected to be displaced to make way for the projects, while the national debt in August hit a record high of 14.35 trillion pesos ($260bn).
Tony La Vina, a lawyer and associate director of the Manila Observatory, a research institute focusing on disaster risk response, cast doubt on whether this type of spending should even be considered legal.
“It’s too open-ended. Lump sums, generally are not specified and might even count as an illegal expenditure. It should be determined how the resources will be used, especially before tagging it as green,” La Vina told Al Jazeera.
The government should be more transparent in its climate crusade, he said, however, at the moment “there is no clear plan”.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
