When the World Engineers Summit opens in Singapore this coming week, with the theme “Innovative and Sustainable Solutions to Climate Change”, there is no excuse for delegates not to be aware of the “clear and present danger”. Singapore’s Straits Times editorially urged everyone  to “Get on with it–global warming is real” days before unprecedented  flooding in the city state and Pacific Island nations last week urged greater support for climate action as their very existence was threatened. Read More

Editorial Desk , The Straits Times (3 September 2013):

The science of predicting global warming has its sceptics, among them vested interests like big industry.

An update on rising sea levels by the United Nations climate panel, which forecasts up to a metre’s rise by 2100, may not win new converts. But a graphic presentation of how coastal flooding could gut the economic assets of low-lying cities should persuade laggard governments that taking timely preventive measures is not a matter of choice.

Climate doubters can challenge the science, but not the visceral evidence of extreme weather phenomena. This is why a new climate study, which places 13 of the 20 most vulnerable cities in Asia alone, should concentrate minds.

Singapore is spared the dubious distinction, but its planners will want to evaluate the impact on the economy of flood damage to Guangzhou and Shenzhen in China, and Mumbai and Kolkata in India – besides Jakarta, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City. Shanghai, Tianjin and Xiamen are also at risk.

These are cities Singapore does business with. The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, calculates that flood damage to the 139 coastal cities assessed worldwide could reach US$1 trillion annually by mid-century if mitigating steps are not taken.

Building and strengthening defences like levees and storm barriers go beyond preparing for an apocalyptic event by the end of the century, when island chains in the Pacific could vanish.

Coastal flooding as a result of storm surges, land subsidence from groundwater depletion and urban growth will wreak havoc on an ascending scale well before sea levels rise.

Flood defences are not a recent invention. Tokyo has had them going back 400 years. But with typical technological acuity, the authorities are building an underground reservoir carved into rock to receive excess runoff. San Francisco is mulling a massive flood wall near the Golden Gate Bridge to save the bay area’s multi-billion dollar technology economy from going underwater. New York worries about its logistical operations.

Singapore has had the benefit of advice from the Dutch – reassuring as countless studies credit Holland with having the world’s best flood defences.

But the frequency of inner-city flooding would have alerted the authorities to the adequacy of its primary defences – stone embankments, the Marina Barrage and a requirement that new reclamations be raised in elevation.

These are periodic infrastructural works which governments plan for and execute as a matter of course. The “scientific” notion of countering the effects of climate change through treaty-mandated reductions in carbon emissions is on the other hand fraught with problems. It is clear what governments should focus on.

Source: www.asianewsnet.net/Get-on-with-it-global-warming-is-real-51128.html

Pacific countries adopt Majuro declaration, lead the world on climate change

By Sean Dorney, ABC Pacific Correspondent  (6 September 2013):

Leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum countries have adopted the Majuro declaration, leading the world in action on climate change.

The Majuro Declaration for Climate Leadership, named after the atoll in the Marshall Islands where this year’s forum has just concluded, describes climate change as one of the greatest challenges for the world.

The declaration commits the countries to increasing their efforts to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions by turning to alternative, sustainable energy resources.

Marshall Islands President, Christopher Loeak, says he hopes the declaration would be a game changer in the global fight to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

“It is our aim to provide leadership to the world on climate change,” Mr Loeak said.

“It is only right that we do that because we are the most vulnerable to climate change even though we do not contribute much to it.”

President of Palau, Tommy Remengesau, host of next year’s Pacific Islands Forum, says climate change would be as important an issue at next year’s Forum.

“It’s always going to be an issue… whether it’s Majuro, whether it’s Cook Islands last year or whether it’s Palau next year,” Mr Remengesau said.

“This is the heart of our very survival as people and island communities.”

Attached to the Majuro Declaration on Climate Leadership is a list of the measures each of the 15 Member Countries are taking to reduce greenhouse emissions.

President Loeak of the Marshall Islands says New Zealand and Australia have agreed to reduce their emissions.

“I believe they will come up with more ambitious targets than currently are in place now…But Australia now is going to an election,” Mr Loeak said.

Australian Labor Government’s Minister for Mental Heath and Ageing, Senator Jacinta Collins, represented Australia at the Forum.

She says the Government was in caretaker mode and could not make any new commitments with the elections due.

Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, the President of the Marshall Islands, will be presenting the declaration to the Secretary General of the United Nations.

The declaration says it will be presented as a contribution to the UN Secretary General’s efforts to catalyse ambitious climate action and mobilise political will for a universal ambitious and legally binding climate change agreement by 2015.

Fiji’s re-admission to the Pacific Islands Forum

Leaders at the forum expressed commitment to revisit Fiji’s suspension from the Forum, welcoming the release of Fiji’s new constitution and its imminent approval by the President of Fiji.

They say the new constitution is an important step towards free and fair elections in Fiji next year.

Any invitation for Fiji’s re-admission to the Forum will not be made until after the Fiji elections which on the current schedule will fall just after next year’s forum in Palau.

Marshall Islands – US dispute on nuclear contamination issues

The Forum leaders welcomed the Special Rapporteur’s report that was submitted to the UN Human Rights Council last year, supporting the Marshall Islands in its efforts to engage the United States towards a justified resolution of the US nuclear testing program.

The report outlines measures that the United States, the United Nations and the Marshall Islands should take to address the Marshall Islands’ dispute with the United States over further compensation for the impacts of radioactive contamination as a result of the U.S. nuclear bomb tests in the Marshalls in the late 1940s and 1950s.

The forum leaders are considering submitting a letter to the US government urging the US to take action to “meaningfully address the ongoing impacts resulting from the US nuclear testing program”.

They are also going to speak to the United Nations Secretary General as they say the Marshall Islands was placed by the international community under a trusteeship of the United Nations to the United States.

Source: www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-05/majuro-declaration-pacific-islands-forum/4939520