In the area you have selected (Vietnam) tsunami hazard is classified as medium according to the information that is currently available. This means that there is more than a 10% chance of a potentially-damaging tsunami occurring in the next 50 years. Based on this information, the impact of tsunami should be considered in different phases of the project for any activities located near the coast. Project planning decisions, project design, and construction methods should take into account the level tsunami hazard. Further detailed information should be obtained to adequately account for the level of hazard.
Pacific “Ring of Fire” (enlarged graphic). Source: Adapted from U.S. Geological SurveyDownload Image
Climate change impact: The areas at risk of tsunami will increase as global mean sea level rises. According to the IPCC (2013), global mean sea level rise depends on a variety of factors, and estimates for 2100 range from ~20 cm to nearly 1 m. However, regional changes in sea level are difficult to predict. Projects in low-lying coastal areas such as deltas, or in island states should be designed to be robust to projected increases in global sea level.
Thousands of people march in the sidelines of the COP30 UN Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil on Nov. 15, 2025.Pablo Porciuncula—AFP via Getty Image
by Brian Mukhaya Brian Mukhaya is the Africa Program Manager at Clean Air Task Force.
Ten years after the landmark Paris Agreement, the world is still trying to solve two crises as if they were separate: climate change and economic development. That’s a dangerous illusion. Climate progress cannot succeed if billions of people remain in poverty, without electricity, stable food systems, or the means to build better lives. And development, if it ignores climate risk, is little more than a short-term fix that will collapse under the weight of future disasters.
I saw this tension firsthand at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, the annual UN climate summit. The energy there was unmistakable—a mixture of urgency and frustration. Delegates from across Africa reminded the world that promises made in Paris have not been kept. Wealthy nations pledged to support developing countries as they cut emissions and adapted to rising temperatures. Yet, a decade later, those commitments remain largely unfulfilled.
At COP29 in Baku last year, developed countries agreed to mobilize at least $300 billion annually by 2035 for developing countries’ climate action, part of a broader aspirational target of $1.3 trillion per year. While this represents a tripling of the previous $100 billion goal, representatives from developing countries remain skeptical. More fundamentally, the $300 billion commitment falls far short of actual needs. The Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance estimates that developing countries (excluding China) need approximately $2.7 trillion annually by 2030 to meet climate and nature-related goals. The gap between promise and reality remains vast—and widening
But money is only part of the problem. Even when funding arrives, it often misses the mark. A new analysis by the Clean Air Task Force looked at 52 African countries’ climate and development plans. It found that the two rarely intersect. Climate strategies focus on emissions and energy transitions, while national development plans emphasize job creation and economic growth—but without embedding climate targets. The result is a patchwork of policies that fail to deliver either lasting prosperity or real emissions cuts.
As Bill Gates noted in a recent memo, global climate policy increasingly risks sidelining development altogether. Today, more than 600 million Africans lack access to electricity, while 900 million do not have clean cooking technologies—conditions that undermine productivity, constrain public services, and contribute to preventable deaths.
Crucially, this should not be understood as an either/or dilemma. Wealthy nations already recognize that decarbonization must go hand in hand with economic growth to be politically viable at home. The same is true globally. Emerging and developing economies cannot be expected to choose between climate progress and economic progress. Insisting on a tradeoff between the two as a trade-off is both unrealistic and unjust.
When climate and development are treated as separate silos, everyone loses. Fragmented planning leads to inefficient allocation of scarce resources, missed opportunities for infrastructure investments with broad benefits, and policies that fail to produce either meaningful emissions reductions or durable socio-economic progress. Importantly, this is not a challenge restricted to Africa but a blind spot in international climate governance. Even wealthy countries are discovering that climate action divorced from economic realities is politically unsustainable. When climate action appears to threaten economic growth, job creation, or living standards, political support erodes quickly.
As negotiations in Belém draw to a close, one truth should be clear: climate and development are not competing agendas—they are the same story. Sustainable development is the foundation of lasting climate progress. And climate resilience is the only path to enduring prosperity. Any strategy that treats them separately is doomed to fail.
Development without climate action is a short-term fix. And climate action without development is an empty promise.
Satellite images show how data centers are changing America’s landscape
Business insider
Data centers across the street from residential housing are not an uncommon scene in Virginia.
There are over a thousand planned or existing data centers across the US, according to a BI investigation.
Major tech companies are racing to construct even more as the AI boom continues. But at what cost?
Satellite images show where these facilities are cropping up and why they’re a nuisance to many.
Build, baby, build. That’s the mantra behind the AI boom sweeping America.
This year, alone, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Google are projected to spend about $320 billion in capex, mostly for AI infrastructure, according to an analysis of financial statements by Business Insider.
At the heart of this AI infrastructure growth are data centers that house the specialized hardware and high-speed networking equipment, driving the intensive computations behind large language models. However, AI needs more.
Because AI learns by processing increasingly large amounts of data, improving it requires more computational power, which in turn necessitates more data centers.
A BI investigation found 1,240 data centers across America are already built or approved for construction by the end of 2024.
Global Forest Watch’s (GFW) deforestation alerts provide information about loss of tree cover in near-real-time, making them a critical tool for those working to combat deforestation. Existing alerts on GFW have been used to help Indigenous and local communities protect their forests, halt and prosecute environmental crimes and protect threatened wildlife.
However, in the past, alerts only let users know there’s been a disturbance without identifying a cause, other than a few limited classes such as fires.
Now, new drivers of deforestation alerts data is available on GFW that shows the causes of alerts across the tropics. This innovative data set uses an AI method to assign drivers to GFW’s integrated deforestation alerts in the three major forested regions in the tropics, allowing users to see what’s driving loss in near-real-time in these regions for the first time.
Critically, this information helps users distinguish between tree cover loss from natural and human causes, enabling more targeted action from those managing forests and reducing the need for costly field visits. Further, the data also provides more rapid information to estimate ecological impacts and supports better understanding of carbon emissions related to forest disturbances.
Almost exactly 10 years ago, a remarkable thing happened in a conference hall on the outskirts of Paris: After years of bitter negotiations, the leaders of nearly every country agreed to try to slow down global warming in an effort to head off its most devastating effects.
The core idea was that countries would set their own targets to reduce their climate pollution in ways that made sense for them. Rich, industrialized nations were expected to go fastest and to help lower-income countries pay for the changes they needed to cope with climate hazards.
So, has anything changed over those 10 years? Actually, yes. Quite a bit, for the better and the worse. For one thing, every country remains committed to the Paris Agreement, except one. That’s the United States.
Forests directly cool the planet, like natural evaporative air conditioners. So what happens when you cut them down?
In tropical countries such as Indonesia, Brazil and the Congo, rapid deforestation may have accounted for up to 75% of the observed surface warming between 1950 and 2010. Our new research took a closer look at this phenomenon.
Using satellite data over Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, we found deforestation can heat a local area by as much as 4.5°C, and can even raise temperatures in undisturbed forests up to 6km away.
More than 40% of the world’s population live in the tropics and, under climate change, rising heat and humidity could push them into lethal conditions. Keeping forests intact is vital to protect those who live in and around them as the planet warms.
The five Mekong countries lost nearly 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of tree cover in 2024, with nearly a quarter of which was primary forest, and more than 30% of losses occurring inside protected areas.
Cambodia and Laos saw some of the highest levels of loss inside protected areas, driven by logging, plantations and hydropower projects, though both countries recorded slight declines from 2023.
In Myanmar, conflict has complicated forest governance, with mining and displacement contributing to losses, though overall deforestation fell slightly compared to the previous year.
Thailand and Vietnam bucked the regional trend, with relatively low forest losses in protected areas, supported by logging bans, reforestation initiatives, and stricter law enforcement.
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BANGKOK — The Mekong countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam lost a combined area of tree cover of nearly a million hectares in 2024, or an area almost the size of Lebanon. That’s according to Mongabay’s analysis* of satellite data published by the Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) laboratory at the University of Maryland, in partnership with Global Forest Watch (GFW).
GFW data show 991,801 hectares (2.45 million acres) of tree cover were lost in 2024, including nearly 220,000 hectares (544,000 acres) of primary forest, across the five Mekong countries. More than 30% of tree cover loss recorded in 2024 occurred inside protected areas, although across the region, the rate of deforestation — both within protected areas and outside of them — slowed slightly from 2023. Despite this, the drivers of deforestation vary somewhat from country to country, and last year’s losses still reflect a grim trajectory for forests in the Mekong region.
The economies of almost all Mekong countries are heavily reliant on agriculture, with forests cleared for both agribusiness-run plantations or subsistence farming plots. But research indicates the conversion of forest to croplands has resulted in increasingly unpredictable weather patterns and subsequently poorer agricultural yields.
A groundbreaking new report, “Resilience, Readiness, and Response,” from Project CASA (Climate and Security Action through Civil-Military Cooperation in Climate-Related Emergencies) highlights the increasing and essential role of national militaries in addressing the escalating global climate crisis.
The report is the result of a comprehensive two-year study which provides the first cross-national dataset on military involvement in climate disasters. Edited by Ronald A. Kingham and Dr. Ashley McIlvain Moran and published by the Environment & Development Resource Centre (EDRC), the report serves as both a critical resource and a call to action for policymakers and practitioners grappling with climate-worsened disasters.
New research analyzing more than 3,000 tropical forest sites reveals that areas with fewer seed-dispersing animals store up to four times less carbon than forests with healthy wildlife populations.
The study found that 81% of tropical trees rely on animals to disperse their seeds, establishing an ancient partnership now threatened by human activities such as deforestation, road construction, and hunting.
Researchers mapped global “seed dispersal disruption” and found it explains a 57% reduction in carbon storage potential across proposed forest restoration areas.
Al JazeeraSeveral delegates express dismay at the failure to break a deadlock at the sixth round of talks in under three years.
Piles of plastic waste at a recycling plant in Erftstadt, Germany [File: Jana Rodenbusch/Reuters]
Published On 15 Aug 2025
Global talks to develop a landmark treaty to tackle plastic pollution have once again failed to reach an agreement, despite efforts late into the night to strike a deal.
Delegates at a closing meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) in Geneva on Friday spoke of their dismay at the failure to break a deadlock at the sixth round of talks in under three years, as countries remained deeply divided over the scope of any treaty.
“South Africa is disappointed that it was not possible for this session to agree a legally binding treaty and positions remain far apart,” its delegate told a closing meeting.
Cuba’s delegate said that negotiators had “missed a historic opportunity but we have to keep going and act urgently”, the AFP news agency reported.
Some fear the world is fast approaching temperature levels where professional risk managers will no longer be able to offer cover for financial services.
Günther Thallinger, a board member at Allianz, one of the world’s biggest insurers, says the climate crisis could make adaptation economically unviable.
Zurich Insurance Group, meanwhile, said alongside a recent research paper assessing climate resilience that the outlook looks “alarmingly bleak.”
A firefighting helicopter flies near as a home burns from the Mountain Fire on November 6, 2024 in Camarillo, California.
David Mcnew | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Top insurers fear the climate crisis could soon outpace industry solutions, effectively threatening to make entire regions around the world uninsurable.
Günther Thallinger, a board member at Allianz, one of the world’s biggest insurers, recently outlined how the world is fast approaching temperature levels where insurers will no longer be able to offer cover for financial services, such as mortgages and investments.
In practice, this scenario implies some may face difficulty being able to afford home insurance cover, which is typically a prerequisite for getting a mortgage.
In a LinkedIn post published in late March, Thallinger made the case for rapid decarbonization, pointing out that entire asset classes were “degrading in real time” as extreme weather events take their toll. Perhaps most strikingly of all, he warned the worsening climate crisis appears to be on track to destroy capitalism.
Insurance, which is regarded as the invisible lubricant of the global economy, has a unique role to play in addressing climate-related risks. As professional risk managers, insurers routinely allow investors to take on calculated risks, protecting individuals and businesses against financial losses.
Thallinger, who is responsible for investment management and sustainability at Allianz, told CNBC that approximately two-thirds of economic losses from natural catastrophes are currently uninsured, indicating a “major societal problem.”
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Long-term intensive chemical use in Laos’ banana farms has degraded the country’s once-fertile soil, and it may take nearly half a century to restore it.
Laos’ fertile soil and its proximity to China have created ideal conditions for banana cultivation to meet the surging demand from Chinese consumers.
This fruit frenzy has attracted Chinese companies to seek farmland in Laos, a landlocked country that has embraced a “green agriculture” approach to combat poverty.
With government approval, the sector has expanded, offering jobs, infrastructure development, and revenue from land once considered undervalued.
However, an investigation by Mekong Eye and the Rainforest Investigations Network (RIN) reveals that the fruit plantation boom has left a legacy of soil degradation and uncertain livelihoods for many local farmers.
OUDOMXAY & BOKEO, LAOS – Northern Laos is experiencing soil degradation after years of monocropping and widespread chemical use on banana farms operated by Chinese entrepreneurs.
Thiep doesn’t remember the name of the Chinese fruit company that leased his family’s land, only that it was one of the first to arrive in his northern Lao village in 2007.
After a decade of monocropping bananas, the company left and then returned the land to his family. But in the interim, the earth had changed in ways Thiep and his household couldn’t have anticipated.
“The soil is unusually hard and dry, not like it used to be. We had to replace the plow with a stronger one just to break the ground,” Thiep recalled.
His family members invested extra effort into its first rice crop after reclaiming the plotland. That year, they enjoyed a bumper harvest that was more than they had before the arrival of the Chinese company. But it was the last time they saw such abundance.
“The yield kept decreasing after that,” Thiep said, planting seedlings in the flooded paddy. “Before we leased it out, this plot produced 60 bags of rice. Now it’s down to 30, not enough for the family to eat.”
Nearly two decades ago, Chinese entrepreneurs, attracted by geographic proximity, blanketed northern Laos with banana plantations.
Exporting bananas to China quickly became an economic mainstay, replacing the long reliance on subsistence rice farming. The plantations not only created local jobs but also increased income for households leasing their land to companies.
But investment capital is bittersweet: it may have provided the region with a ladder out of the depths of poverty, but it has ushered in new perils.
Some local workers have reportedly fallen ill or died after pesticide spraying on farms.
Young Hmong workers rest after long hours of labor on a banana plantation in Oudomxay province, northern Laos. Many, including children under 15, face direct exposure to hazardous agricultural chemicals used in the plantations.
A 2017 study, conducted with the Lao government’s involvement, found that agricultural chemicals – used intensively and without consistent management on banana plantations – had poisoned rivers and soil, and harmed the health of residents and plantation workers.
Among the chemicals identified were paraquat – a highly toxic herbicide banned in several countries, including Laos and China – and chlorothalonil, a hazardous substance banned in the EU in 2020 due to its potential to pollute groundwater and cause cancer.
Facing the issue, an official from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce verbally stated in early 2017 that the Prime Minister’s Office had ordered a ban on all commercial banana cultivation, according to the Laos News Agency. However, our reporter was unable to find any official orders on public platforms dating back to 2016.
Microplastics have permeated the region’s food chain, hitting countries like Indonesia and the Philippines the hardest. The programme Insight looks at the health risks and what is being done to boot plastic from our plates.
A study found that in nearly 94 per cent of fish sampled from Jakarta Bay, their gills and guts were laced with microplastics.
JAKARTA and MANILA: Milkfish — grilled, fried or floating in fragrant soup — is a staple on Indonesian dining tables. Its flesh is tender, its flavour delicately sweet.
What has no taste, however, would be the microplastics inside its body.
A study last year found that in nearly 94 per cent of fish sampled from Jakarta Bay, their gills and guts were laced with these toxic fragments, each no larger than five millimetres.
“If the microplastics are absorbed by fish and then consumed by humans, it means they’ll accumulate in humans,” warns Widodo Setiyo Pranowo, principal investigator at Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency. “That’s dangerous.”
People swim in the lagoon in Funafuti, Tuvalu, on November 28, 2019. Mario Tama/Getty ImagesSydney, AustraliaCNN —
More than a third of the population of Tuvalu has applied to move to Australia, under a landmark visa scheme designed to help people escape rising sea levels.
The island nation – roughly halfway between Hawaii and Australia – is home to about 10,000 people, according to the latest government statistics, living across a clutch of tiny islets and atolls in the South Pacific.
On June 16, Australia opened a roughly one-month application window for what it says is a one-of-a-kind visa offering necessitated by climate change. Under the new scheme, Australia will accept 280 visa winners from a random ballot between July and January 2026. The Tuvaluans will get permanent residency on arrival in Australia, with the right to work and access public healthcare and education.
More than 4,000 people have applied under the scheme, according to official figures seen by CNN.
“The opening of the Falepili Mobility Pathway delivers on our shared vision for mobility with dignity, by providing Tuvaluans the opportunity to live, study and work in Australia as climate impacts worsen,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement.
CNN has reached out to the Tuvalu government.
According to Tuvalu’s Prime Minister Feleti Teo, more than half of Tuvalu will be regularly inundated by tidal surges by 2050. By 2100, 90% of his nation will be regularly under water, he says.
Fongafale, the nation’s capital, is the largest and most populated islet in Tuvalu’s main atoll, Funafuti. It has a runway-like strip of land just 65 feet (20 meters) wide in some places.
“You can put yourself in my situation, as the prime minister of Tuvalu, contemplating development, contemplating services for the basic needs of our people, and at the same time being presented with a very confronting and disturbing forecast,” Teo told the United Nations Oceans Conference this month in Nice, France.
At the Third UN Ocean Conference in Nice, the “catch of the day” wasn’t a seabass or a red mullet – it was a figure: 35 per cent. That’s the share of global fish stocks now being harvested unsustainably, according to a new UN report released Wednesday.
As yachts bobbed gently and delegates streamed by in a rising tide of lanyards and iPads at Port Lympia, Nice’s historic harbor, that statistic sent a ripple through the conference’s third day – a stark reminder that the world’s oceans are under growing pressure from overfishing, climate change and unsustainable management.
CVD 