asia-pacific

On this episode of About Sustainability…, Alice and Erin were joined by Naoyuki OKANO and Nagisa SHIIBA, IGES experts working on Climate Adaptation. This episode, recorded in December 2023, offers a quick recap of what happened at COP28 in Dubai and then dives deep into the far-reaching impacts of climate change on human security. 

Hosted in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) brought the world’s leaders together to discuss how to confront the climate crisis. Some of its main outcomes include the first Global Stocktake (GST), the agreement on the framework for operationalising the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), and the agreement on the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund. 

Naoyuki and Nagisa introduce us to their new research project on Climate Security in the Asia Pacific, funded by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We discuss how framing the climate crisis as a security issue can be a powerful approach to mobilising resources across areas and tackling global challenges.

ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Dr. Naoyuki OKANO is a Policy Researcher in the Adaptation and Water Unit of IGES. He works on issues related to the laws and governance of climate change adaptation, nature-based solutions, transboundary climate risks, and climate security. 

Nagisa SHIIBA is a Policy Researcher at the Adaptation and Water Unit of IGES. She is engaged in research projects on climate change adaptation and supports the negotiation process for the Japanese delegation to the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS AND PROJECTS

Asia-Pacific Climate Security Project (APCS) Website 

TIMESTAMPS

00:10 - 02:10             Intro                                         

02:10 - 05:06             COP 28                                   

05:06 - 13:18             Global Goal on Adaptation     

13:18 - 17:33             Loss and Damage 

17:33 - 36:07             Climate Security 

36:07 - 51:18             Climate Migration 

51:18 - 54:22             Food Security 

54:22 - 57:00             Balancing Security Issues in Climate Adaptation Plans 

"About Sustainability..." is a podcast brought to you by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), an environmental policy think-tank based in Hayama, Japan. IGES experts are concerned with environmental and sustainability challenges. Everything shared on the podcast will be off-the-cuff discussion, and any viewpoints expressed are those held by the speaker at the time of recording. They are not necessarily official IGES positions.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi followed up his State visit to the US in June with a visit to France, one of India's most important strategic partners. The two countries laid out a 25-year roadmap, based on three pillars. What does the roadmap mean? How does it stack up against India's economic, regional, and global goals? Sachin Kalbag and Yusuf Unjhawala of Takshashila lay it bare.

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President Biden is pursuing re-election for a second term, urging voters to give him four further years. He has promised a thaw in relations with China, yet intense competition between the superpowers suggests a softening of tone is unlikely. In this podcast, James McGregor, chairman of APCO World wide's Greater China region, offers his expert perspective on the Biden Administration's foreign policy to regular host, Duncan Bartlett.

There are allegations that China has been interfering in the Canadian political system and preventing free speech. In the spring of 2023, Canada expelled a Chinese diplomat, alleging that he had been harassing a politician. Soon afterwards, a Canadian frigate was intercepted by a Chinese warship in the Taiwan Strait. In this podcast, Zuri Linetsky, research fellow at the Eurasia Group Foundation in Washington and Jonathan Berkshire Miller, Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa, discuss Canada's strategy for China and the Indo-Pacific.

When Joe Biden went to Hiroshima for the G7 summit in May, he declared that there will soon be a thaw in relations between the US and China. Dialogue has increased but some fundamental disagreements still keep the two countries very far apart. In this podcast, renowned author and journalist Jonathan Fenby offers his reading of the situation to regular host, Duncan Bartlett.

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol received widespread praise in the international media for his historic five day state visit to the United States in April 2023. Joe Biden reassured Mr Yoon that America will defend South Korea in the face of threats. In this podcast, Dr John Nilsson-Wright of Cambridge University discusses the changing dynamics in East Asian politics with Duncan Bartlett, Editor of Asian Affairs.

Australia is facing the most challenging strategic circumstances since the second world war, according to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. His government has labelled the intense competition between China and the United States “the defining feature of our region and our time”. Yet under Mr Albanese’s leadership, Australia is attempting to “stabilise” the relationship with China, and the Prime Minister is due to visit Beijing in 2023. In this podcast, James Laurenceson, director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, explains Australia's diplomatic strategy to regular podcast host Duncan Bartlett, the Editor of Asian Affairs.

In this week’s ABR podcast, James Curran considers the response of Asia-Pacific nations to the government’s decision to retain AUKUS, the major foreign affairs initiative of the Morrison government. In seeking to shape this response, Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s message is necessarily complex, argues Curran. James Curran is Professor of Modern History at Sydney University and foreign affairs columnist for the Australian Financial Review. Here he is reading ‘Exorcising the Ghosts: Australia’s new, old foreign policy’, which appears in the April issue of ABR.

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Young men in Taiwan must ramp up their battle skills. From 2024, they will be conscripted into the army for a full year. During this time, they will receive training in how to fight at close-quarters battle as well as learning how to fire missiles and operate drones. The government says the training is necessary to deal with a threat from China. But how do young people themselves feel about the issue? Howard Zhang, the Editor of the BBC’s Chinese service, went to Taiwan to find out. He shares his findings with podcast host, Duncan Bartlett.

In the view of Japan's Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, East Asia could be the next Ukraine. He has warned that "the situation around Japan is becoming increasingly severe with attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force." Mr Kishida has two countries in mind: North Korea and Japan’s long-term regional rival, China. The fear is that a war could break out, drawing Japan into the crisis. In this episode, Bill Emmott, Chair of the Japan Society of the UK discusses Japan’s dilemmas with Duncan Bartlett, Editor of Asian Affairs magazine and a former Tokyo correspondent for the BBC.

There would be catastrophic consequences if China invades Taiwan and tries to reunify the island with the mainland by force. Taiwan has said it will fight back with advanced weapons supplied by the US. Joe Biden says the American military would become involved. As well as the human cost, the economic consequences would also be severe. In this podcast, renowned Sinologist Charles Parton considers if economic factors will deter a conflict. The podcast host is Duncan Bartlett, Editor of Asian Affairs.

This week we bring you a podcast from AgriFutures growAG, the gateway to Australia’s agrifood innovation system.
Our growAG contributor,  Samantha Noon catches up with Tegan Nock, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Australian microbial tech startup, LoamBio, and Louisa Burwood-Taylor, Head of Media for Silicon Valley venture capital firm, AgFunder, and Chief Editor of AgFunder News – the go-to global investment news platform.
Together they explore the key investment trends and noteworthy funding rounds, from the recent AgFunder 2022 Asia-Pacific AgriFoodTech Investment Report, including LoamBio's Series A, Top 5 Aussie deal, worth $40million AUD, and what that means for Australian biotech going forward. 
First Louisa, joins us from London, to help unpack the deal flow trends, including China's investment slump, India's blossoming market, where alt proteins are headed, and the growing calibre of innovative startups making their mark.

Visit growAG.com to read the full story, and visit AgFunder.com to download the investment report.