Will the Belt and Road Initiative bring environmental devastation or a new era of Chinese global resource stewardship? Asks Lili Pike
Category: Region
Selected environmental stories from media outlets in the Mekong region and beyond.
Vietnam makes a big push for coal, while pledging to curb emissions
The country’s latest electricity plan calls for more renewable energy, but still projects a massive increase in coal-fired power.
Laos: On the Borders of the Empire
Aljazerra investigates in a 25 minute report China’s rising influence in Laos and the potentially disastrous consequences for the local population.
Paying for progress: Getting the private sector to pull its weight
The ADB’s 25 developing member countries together invested $881 billion in infrastructure in 2015, which is well below the estimated $1.34 trillion annual investment needed over the five-year period from 2016-20 if climate change-related projects are included. This gap amounts to 2.4% of annual average projected GDP for the same period.
Sharing of resources is ‘key to long-lasting peace’ in Myanmar
Aung San Suu Kyi’s government asked to prioritize resource sharing as Myanmar’s second session of peace talks got underway this week. Civil society and politicians in Kachin State have called on the Myanmar government to prioritize regulation of the mining sector in their efforts to end the associated human rights abuses and deadly armed conflict.
Companies Join Hands to Build Xe Bangfai Dam
Mitr Phol Corp., Ltd of Thailand and the Laosamay Road Bridge Construction Company have signed a joint investment agreement for the development and construction of a hydropower dam on the Xe Bangfai river in Khammuan and an irrigation system for both Khammuan and Savannakhet provinces.
The battle for the ‘mother of rivers’
Scientists are praising the discovery of new species and rare dolphins in the Mekong region, but overfishing and dams loom to disrupt habitats says a special report by the Ecologist.
Vietnam’s response to climate change? A shrimp and mangrove cocktail
Julia Wallace Like other shrimp farmers here in this lush, canal-lined province in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, Nguyen Van A can instantly rattle off the precise percentage of saltwater in which crustaceans grow best. And at the moment, he insists with a smile, everybody knows that Ben Tre Province has the best brackish water in the […]
Experts explore sustainable infrastructure amid major development needs
Southeast Asia to be hit hard by road construction: 95 percent of all illegal deforestation takes place within 3.4 miles of a road, meaning road construction will place massive pressure on jungles and forests in the future.
Mekong Delta Blues
BBC Radio 4’s Costing the Earth program explores how the government of Laos is determined to develop the nation by building hydroelectric dams for electricity, yet many people in the downstream countries of Cambodia and Vietnam are worried that the flow of the life-giving waters of the Mekong will be much reduced and fish life devastated. Peter Hadfield reports from the banks of the Mekong