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.
Tag: energy
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.
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
Myanmar MP demands environmental protection
Myanmar MP, Dr Aung Khin, representing Pyin Oo Lwin, said, due to rapid deforestation, the country faced its severest weather conditions in 2015 and 2016. The country’s efforts to conserve the natural environment was at the lowest stage. The country ranked 164th out of 178 countries in the 2014 Environmental Performance Index, which suggested that more needed to be done for the conservation of natural resources, the MP said.
Vietnam urges Laos to rethink Mekong River dams
The Mekong Delta will disappear in the next several decades once Pak Beng Dam and another 10 planned hydropower dams are built on the Mekong River in Laos and Cambodia, delegates warned at a conference on Saturday in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.
Myanmar and Thai NGOs support ‘Nation’ reporter hit by suit for ‘defaming’ mining firm
EIGHTY Thai and Myanmar NGOs have voiced their support for The Nation journalist Pratch Rujivanarom, who has been sued by a Thai mining company over a report about the environmental impacts of a tin mine affecting local people in Myanmar.
Without innovation, oil could find itself out of job
The days of simply sticking a pipe in the ground and tapping a pool of easy-to-handle — and profitable — crude oil is fading. Maximising the planet’s oil reserves will challenge traditional thinking in order to harness technical know-how in a way that will have minimal impact on climate.
At ADB meeting, the bank and civil society grapple over reform
During the first major session held on the first day of the Asian Development Bank’s 50th annual meeting in Yokohama, an activist handed President Takehiko Nakao a pair of gifts. The first was a photo book, entitled “A Visual Testimony of Asian Development Bank’s 50 Years of Destruction,” the second a financing trend analysis: “Missing the Mark ADB@50.”
Can ASEAN Save the Mekong River?
As discussions continue, the future of one of the world’s greatest rivers is as bleak as ever.
ADB president calls for new Infrastructure Investment
More investment in infrastructure is needed to support continued growth in Asia and the Pacific and combat climate change, Asian Development Bank (ADB) president Takehiko Nakao said in his opening address at the 50th annual meeting of ADB’s board of governors on Saturday.