The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will boost its investments in “clean energy” to US$2 billion a year by 2013, doubling its current contribution, the bank’s president said yesterday.
Haruhiko Kuroda said he hoped the target could even be achieved before 2013 and noted the multilateral institution had provided US$1 billion last year.
Speaking on the sidelines of an environment conference at the ADB headquarters in Manila, Kuroda said the US$2 billion was “a fraction of the region’s financing needs” to fight climate change and cut greenhouse gases.
PHOTO: REUTERS
But he expressed hope the bank’s contribution would have a “catalyzing” effect and leverage additional resources from the private sector.
Kuroda warned that many Asia-Pacific countries, particularly in Southeast Asia, would be the most affected if sea levels rose as a result of global warming.
At the same forum, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said such a problem meant Asia-Pacific countries should be ahead of other regions in alleviating climate change.
The officials cited the Maldives, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia as countries that could suffer seriously.
Also at the forum, Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, said in a statement that climate change was threatening the economic growth achieved by Asia in recent decades.
“Climate change impacts will be overwhelmingly severe for Asia. They will exacerbate existing vulnerabilities and they have the potential to throw countries back into the poverty trap,” he said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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