Climate Change In Southeast Asia

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Climate change is likely to be “one of the most significant development challenges confronting Southeast Asia in the 21st century” (Asian Development Bank, 2009, p. 8). It is the major challenges around the world, indirectly it also brings a great pressure to our society. From ever-changing weather patterns that rising sea level and affecting food production, the impact of climate change is world-wide. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its 4th Assessment Report has confirmed that climate change is real, has assessed its magnitude, future evolution and its impact (Dutt & Gaioli, 2007, p. 4239). There are 11 countries in Southeast Asia and 10 of them are members of the regional economic organization, the Association of…show more content…
(Belinda & Leon, 2009, p. 14) In addition, all of Southeast Asia countries have signed the Kyoto Protocol. It is an international treaty which follows the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is one of the main tools for deal with climate change (Anderson, 1998). Its main goal is to control the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The main element which causes global climate change is rising of concentration of greenhouse gases on Earth. Since the industrial revolution, there has been a significant increase in the emission of greenhouse gases. Ahrens et al. (2012) stated that, greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which consists of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and water vapour help to maintain the Earth as a habitable planet. These gases could warm the Earth’s surface and lower atmosphere, without them, Earth’s average temperature would only be -18°C instead of the present 15°C (Ahrens et al.,…show more content…
According to Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC), the total emission of these ten countries (Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Laos and Singapore) was merely 1045.95 million tons which was considered relatively low compared to two large carbon dioxide emission countries that is United State ( 5975.10 million tons) and China (6103.49 million tons). Nevertheless, carbon dioxide emission from Southeast Asia could not be neglected as these countries have recorded a growing trend in carbon dioxide emission over the years. According to Figure 2, concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has rapidly increasing since the industrial revolution from about 300 parts per million to around 390 parts per million, nearly 40% higher than preindustrial levels. According to Global Climate Change (2016), carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere is at their highest in 650,000 years in the year of 2016 that is 403.19 parts per million. Experts also have been discussed that the expected major cause of global climate change is the growth of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere (Parikh, 1994, p. 2940). Fossil fuel burning, certain industrial processes, carbon emission from refrigerator and air conditioner are several among many activities that are responsible for the emission of

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