Tác giả: Đào Thu Hằng

I'm from Hanoi, Viet Nam. I'm an author of Dot Chuoi Non (dotchuoinon.com/author/hangbelu/), a blog on Positive thinking, founded by Dr. Tran Dinh Hoanh, an attorney in Washington DC. I'm a co-founder of Conversations on Vietnam Development - cvdvn.net, a virtual think tank. I am a co-founder of two companies in Viet Nam working on children education services. I advise companies on STEAM education, English language education for children and students in Vietnam. I'm studying the Buddha's teaching and the teaching of Jesus. I practice mindful living including meditation. I hold a PhD on Sustainable Energy Systems from University of Lisbon and Aalto University. I graduated from Hanoi University of Technology on Environmental Engineering. I obtained a Master degree of the same major from Stanford University and Nanyang Technological University. My English-language blog at: hangbelu.wordpress/. I play table tennis as a hobby.

A Return to the Rule of Law in the South China Sea?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
The UNCLOS tribunal’s ruling that it has jurisdiction in the case brought by the Philippines will likely improve prospects for the rule of law in the South China Sea – and it is in China’s interest to contribute to this development.
DigitalGlobe high-resolution imagery of the Subi Reef in the South China Sea. Photo via Getty Images.DigitalGlobe high-resolution imagery of the Subi Reef in the South China Sea. Photo via Getty Images.

Chathamhouse – China has been on a diplomatic charm offensive last week to improve its relations with  neighbours who have a stake in the stability of the South China Sea (SCS), reaching out to Vietnam and Japan and  culminating in the historic meeting with Taiwan’s leader Ma Ying-jeou on 7 November. This followed on from recent setbacks for its ambitions in the SCS . First, the United States sent its warship USS Lassen within 12 nautical miles of the Chinese controlled Subi Reef to challenge China’s claim to the feature. Then, on 29 October an arbitral tribunal established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and hosted by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) at the Hague found that it has jurisdiction to hear the claims put forward by the Philippines in a case against China concerning maritime rights in a part of the SCS claimed by both. Tiếp tục đọc “A Return to the Rule of Law in the South China Sea?” →

China must act decisively to eradicate the ivory trade

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

The continued existence of large stockpiles of legal raw ivory in the country is hampering China’s promises to save the elephant, says Li Zhang.

11 November 2015

Kin Cheung /AP/Press Association Images Criminal gangs tried to smuggle this ivory into China from Tanzania.

Nature – The fight against the illegal ivory trade had some success last month with the arrest of a Chinese woman alleged to have smuggled more than 700 elephant tusks from Tanzania. Ivory is a particular prize in China, where it has been carved into ornaments, chopsticks and jewellery for more than 3,000 years. Tiếp tục đọc “China must act decisively to eradicate the ivory trade” →

LandMark: Protecting Indigenous and Community Lands by Making Them Visible

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

WRI – Up to 65 percent of the world’s land is held by Indigenous Peoples and communities, yet only 10 percent is legally recognized as belonging to them. The rest, held under customary tenure arrangements, is largely unmapped, not formally demarcated, and therefore invisible to the world. Without strong legal protections or concrete maps delineating their territories, communities are vulnerable to losing their land to governments and investors for economic and commercial development.

That’s where LandMark comes in. Launched today, LandMark is the first online, interactive global platform to provide maps and other critical information on lands that are held and used by Indigenous Peoples and communities. The platform aims to raise awareness, engage audiences, and help these people protect their land rights. Shining a light on indigenous and community land reduces the likelihood that irregular acquisitions and expropriations go unnoticed, and helps protect the livelihoods and well-being of billions of rural people.

1) Indigenous and Community Land Is Not “Vacant” Land.

Tiếp tục đọc “LandMark: Protecting Indigenous and Community Lands by Making Them Visible” →

A Code of Conduct for Maritime Security

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

November 11, 2015

By John J. Brandon

From November 14-22, President Obama will embark on a three-stop overseas trip, beginning in Turkey to attend the G20, followed by a stop in Manila for the APEC summit, and ending in Malaysia where he will meet with Asian leaders for the 10th East Asian Summit (EAS) and U.S.-ASEAN Summit.

Maritime security

With more than 130,000 ships passing through the Straits of Malacca, Southeast Asia is a critical maritime region for commerce and resources. Photo/Flickr user salehi hassan http://bit.ly/1SjxL8H

asiafoundation – One of the biggest and most contentious issues at the EAS will no doubt be maritime security, as conflicting territorial and boundary disputes feature prominently in the region. However, none of these disputes will be resolved at the EAS and most likely not for several years to come. At last week’s ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus in Kuala Lumpur, leaders failed to release a joint statement amid disagreements over China’s objection over the South China Sea being mentioned in the document. Tiếp tục đọc “A Code of Conduct for Maritime Security” →

Renewables: Asean’s new energy frontier?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Renewable energy is rapidly becoming a mainstream source of power in Southeast Asia, accounting for more than 15 per cent of electricity generation in the region. This number will grow over the next decade and beyond, driven by climate change, energy security and economics.

Asean solar SIEW
Renewable energy can play a significant role in helping Southeast Asia address its energy security issue by ensuring a steady, sustainable stream of power, experts at an industry event said. Image: Shutterstock
Future Ready Singapore

Thursday 5 November 2015

ecobusiness – Demand for energy in Southeast Asia is set to rise a staggering 80 per cent by 2040, driven by a population boom, economic expansion and increasing urbanisation, predicts the International Energy Agency (IEA) in a report released earlier this month (Oct).
At the same time, governments of the ten-country Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) bloc need to provide access to the 120 million people in the region still lacking round-the-clock electricity while capping carbon emissions that will worsen climate change. Tiếp tục đọc “Renewables: Asean’s new energy frontier?” →

The UK-China Civilian Nuclear Agreement

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
Photo courtesy of Michael Lowell from https://www.flickr.com/photos/pookieevans/849683393/in/photolist-abyFoE-abvK2R-7pSuwy-df7tX6-7T7vtd-e3ghoR-5j74ft-5j7492-5j74mF-7V4Eta-58furn-5E1hm-33bn7z-o2HeXv-9a1bGf-7YgbNu-3gTpf-aDepcL-2i5RgF-rgW7pq-ryoHvF-7CjyDW-
By Jane Nakano, Michelle Melton Oct 23, 2015

This week, Xi Jinping made his first visit to the United Kingdom as the president of the People’s Republic of China. Both governments hope that the visit will inaugurate a “golden era” of trade relations. President Xi’s visit highlights the budding cooperation between the two countries in the area of civilian nuclear energy. Among the roughly £30 billion in deals inked between the two countries was a Chinese commitment to partially fund the first nuclear plant to be built in the United Kingdom since 1995 and the first new nuclear plant in the European Union since the 2011 Fukushima accident. The announcement during Xi’s visit of an agreement to allow substantial Chinese participation in the UK civil nuclear program signifies a new era for China’s nuclear export program and perhaps for the global nuclear industry. It also provides fodder for ongoing debates about the costs and benefits of using nuclear power to address climate change and the national security implications of allowing foreign investment in critical infrastructure. We outline the scope of nuclear cooperation, explain the key factors driving the deal, and discuss the potential implications for the global nuclear industry. Tiếp tục đọc “The UK-China Civilian Nuclear Agreement” →

Myanmar’s Path to Electrification: The Role of Distributed Energy Systems

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By Rachel Posner Ross

Power lines in Labutta, Myanmar. Source: AX's flickr photostream, used under a creative commons license.

Power lines in Labutta, Myanmar. Source: AX’s flickr photostream, used under a creative commons license.

CSIS – With Myanmar’s historic elections around the corner, the international community has focused its attention on this former military regime’s transformation toward democracy. But in every political scenario following the November 2015 elections, Myanmar has immense needs for investments to mitigate problems with energy access, capacity, and reliability that hinder the country’s prospects for economic development. Today, Myanmar has one of the lowest electrification rates in Asia. The recent census documented only 32 percent of households use electricity as the main energy source for lighting and 69 percent still use firewood as the primary energy source for cooking. The communities and businesses already connected to the national grid experience frequent power outages due to inadequate supplies and degraded infrastructure. As Myanmar’s rural population seeks tangible improvements to their quality of life, electrification represents an opportunity for the government to bring near-term legitimacy to the political and economic reform agenda. Tiếp tục đọc “Myanmar’s Path to Electrification: The Role of Distributed Energy Systems” →

Data Mining Reveals the Extent of China’s Ghost Cities

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

12 COMMENTS

Emerging Technology From the arXiv

November 2, 2015

MITTechnologyreview – Overdevelopment in China has created urban regions known as ghost cities that are more or less uninhabited. Nobody knew how bad the problem was until Baidu used its Big Data Lab to find out.

In recent years, China has undergone a period of urban growth that is unprecedented in human history. The number of square kilometers devoted to urban living grew from 8,800 in 1984 to 41,000 in 2010. And that was just the start. China used more concrete between 2011 and 2013 than the U.S. used in the entire 20th century.

Some of this building has been misplaced. In various parts of China, developers have built so much housing so quickly that it has outstripped demand, even in the world’s most populous country. The result is the well-publicized phenomenon of ghost cities—entire urban areas that are more or less deserted. Tiếp tục đọc “Data Mining Reveals the Extent of China’s Ghost Cities” →

Finding the Silver Pipelining in the Keystone XL Decision

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
  • Photo courtesy of rickz from https://www.flickr.com/photos/rickz/2113212191/in/photolist-4dJLmX-8AaSq8-4R2T6-ogvPnb-cHW8qL-9c4B2L-H8U2t-6YX1eb-6YWZVG-6YX1J7-4ZLHta-P4pxK-P3MCu-P4py8-P4ABV-P432S-P432b-P4ABR-P3Mgd-6YSZz2-axSvq-6hmrrn-P4ABK-5btKCU-BmhUs-9YT
    By Sarah Ladislaw, Frank A. Verrastro
    Nov 6, 2015
     CSIS – Today President Obama, after seven long years of study and deliberation, rejected TransCanada’s request for a Presidential Permit for its Keystone XL pipeline – a 1,179 mile pipeline designed to bring up to 830,000 barrels per day of Canadian oil to an integrated pipeline system in the United States. Despite the Obama administration’s protestations to the contrary, the decision to deny the permit is rumored to have been made for quite some time and the timing of today’s decision appears to be a calculated step to win the president and the administration additional support from the environmental community before heading off to Paris for the UN climate negotiations at the end of this month. The president asserted that approving Keystone XL would undercut the U.S. role as a climate leader, when in reality the decision likely carries more weight in domestic rather than international circles. Indeed, U.S. leadership on climate is more firmly supported by the suite of action it has taken as part of the Climate Action Plan.

    Tiếp tục đọc “Finding the Silver Pipelining in the Keystone XL Decision” →

Mega-regional infrastructure initiatives – Asia’s new noodle bowl?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Published on Monday, 26 October 2015

ADB has financed part of the Almaty-Bishkek highway.
ADB has financed part of the Almaty-Bishkek highway.

One of the striking lessons from Asia’s success over the past few decades is that it makes economic sense to invest in regional infrastructure to link two or more countries to support outward-oriented development strategies.

Cross-border projects such as the Almaty-Bishkek regional road in Central Asia, the India-Bangladesh Electrical Grid Interconnection project, and the Tonga-Fiji Submarine Cable have enhanced Asia’s economic development by stimulating flows of goods, services, investment, people and technology. They have also fostered regional peace and cooperation. Negative effects such as environmental degradation, displaced people, crime and trafficking from such projects have been largely mitigated through safeguards and public policies. Tiếp tục đọc “Mega-regional infrastructure initiatives – Asia’s new noodle bowl?” →

Vietnam: Fossil fuel subsidies need to be phased out

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Jun 18, 2014

imageUNDP VN – Ha Noi, 18 June 2014 – “Fossil fuel subsidies should be phased out and a price set on carbon,” the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Viet Nam has recommended in a discussion paper launched today.

The paper, “Green Growth and Fossil Fuel Fiscal Policies in Viet Nam – Recommendations for a Roadmap for Policy Reform” argues that despite the Government’s commitment towards green growth and restructuring the energy sector including price reform, there are still substantial indirect subsidies on fossil fuels in the country.

According to the paper, Viet Nam’s energy prices are low compared to other countries in the region. Although there have been significant price increases, average retail prices remained the same during 2008-2013, and are in fact lower than the previous five-year period, when measured against 2002 prices taking into account inflation. Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnam: Fossil fuel subsidies need to be phased out” →

Emergence of Southeast Asia as energy giant carries risks, opportunities

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

IEA report sees continued shift to coal and increasing dependence on oil and gas imports

8 October 2015   Kuala Lumpur

WEO2015_ASEAN_Cover

IEA – The energy landscape in Southeast Asia continues to shift as rising demand, constrained domestic production and energy security concerns lead to a greater role for coal, a sharp rise in the region’s dependence on oil imports and the reversal of its role as a major gas supplier to international markets.

“As Southeast Asia flourishes, it is moving to the centre of the global energy stage,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said. “Countries in the region now have much in common with IEA members. We must all work together to build more secure and sustainable energy supplies and markets, as platforms for promoting economic development.” Tiếp tục đọc “Emergence of Southeast Asia as energy giant carries risks, opportunities” →

Child marriage: a devastating effect of the refugee crisis

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By Mabel van Oranje

Oct 22 2015

weforum – The global refugee crisis triggered by the Syrian war and other conflicts poses a major challenge for governments around the world. Behind the scenes, though, it is exacerbating another, less visible, but equally disturbing global phenomenon: a dramatic increase in child marriage.

When families find themselves in dire straits because of war or natural disaster – without a home or income, with worries about security and an uncertain future – many choose to marry off their daughters, often to older men. Parents may believe this is the only way they can protect and provide for these young girls. The impact, however, can be devastating. Child brides are often affected by domestic violence and face overwhelming pressure to have children when they themselves are still children. Most of them are also denied education, even though this is a well-established route out of poverty. Tiếp tục đọc “Child marriage: a devastating effect of the refugee crisis” →

Buddhist Leaders Call For Climate Change Action At Paris Talks

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

“The earth is not just our environment. The earth is our mother.”

Headshot of Lydia O'Connor
General Assignment Reporter
<span class='image-component__caption' itemprop="caption">The Dalai Lama joined with 11 other Buddhist leaders to urge the phasing out of fossil fuels.</span>
Huffingtonpost – The Dalai Lama joined with 11 other Buddhist leaders to urge the phasing out of fossil fuels.

A dozen Buddhist authorities, in what they’re calling an unprecedented effort, appeal to world leaders to take strong climate change action at next month’s Paris conference.

In the letter released Thursday and titled “Buddhist Climate Change Statement to World Leaders,” the Dalai Lama and 11 other signatories urge the phasing out of fossil fuels and movement toward 100 percent use of renewable energy. This letter, the authors note, is the first time this so many Buddhist leaders have united to take a stance on a global issue. Tiếp tục đọc “Buddhist Leaders Call For Climate Change Action At Paris Talks” →

UN Sustainable Development Goals: Good For Business

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Forbes – Think of the word “sustainability” and what springs to mind? For many, it means being “green,” and accepting the need for more careful use of increasingly limited natural resources. More specifically, it is a word synonymous with energy renewal and efficiency programs, harnessing the power of the sun, water and wind.

Advocates of these programs argue that they are ultimately good for the bottom line. Yet there are those – and there are many across the boardrooms of global business – who caution that sustainability can be a slippery slope, leading the corporation to make investments that may be good for society but detrimental to shareholders.

Let me offer another word to consider – “development.” Perhaps you would associate this with something that governments are responsible for – the economic and social development of their country through sensible domestic and foreign policies. Companies, of course, should be in compliance with whatever laws exist to implement these policies, but they are not directly responsible for development, right? Tiếp tục đọc “UN Sustainable Development Goals: Good For Business” →