An overview on global warming in Southeast Asia: CO₂ emission status, efforts done, and barriers

Abstract

Southeast Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to the global warming threats. Although it is not the main global carbon dioxide (CO₂) producer, its emission will become significant if there is no action taken. CO₂ sources of Southeast Asia are mainly contributed by electricity and heat production, as well as transportation sector. The efforts taken by these countries can be categorized into governmental and regional level. This review article is giving an overall picture of global warming issue in Southeast Asia. We will review on the efforts that have been done in Southeast Asia region to address global warming issue. ASEAN has an important role to play at regional level to tie its entire member countries into cooperation, creating a borderless regional cooperation in this issue. The article will also look into some shortcomings that faced by these countries. With the purpose to gain attentions from all parties into the seriousness of global warming issue in Southeast Asia, we hope that more efficient measures can be taken and this region, too, can successfully achieve their CO₂ reduction target as promised.

Introduction

Global warming issue is at its alarming level worldwide nowadays. Southeast Asia, which consists of Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, is one of the vulnerable regions to global warming that should not be overlooked [1]. Lightning floods, droughts, landslides, tropical cyclones are some of the instant adverse impacts attacked the region recently that affect the countries' politic and economic, public health and life quality. Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004 will never be forgotten by all the region residents. Southern Leyte Mudslide 2006 buried over 1100 lives in the Philippines [2] while Bopha typhoon that attacked Mindanao, Philippines in December 2012 affected more than 213,000 people in the country [3]. Besides than logging activities, heavy rainfall was believed to be the key factor that brought to landslides in the nation [4]. Besides that, Southeast Asia is expected to be affected by the sea level increment about 3–16 cm by 2030 and 7–50 cm by 2070 [5].

Southeast Asia countries are considered as a small contributor to the world's carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission. In 2006, total emission of these ten countries was merely 1045.95 million tons (MT), which was relatively low compared to the two giant CO₂ emission countries, China (6103.49 MT) and United States (5975.10 MT) [6]. However, their CO₂ emissions should not be disregarded because these countries recorded an increasing trend in CO₂ emissions throughout the years as shown in Fig. 1. Asia-Pacific Energy Research Center (APERC) predicted a quadruple CO₂ emission in Southeast Asia by 2030 if there is no action taken or change in policies related to this issue [1] and if this happen, it is expected that the emission values will become more significant compared to United States' and China's.

Maintaining or reducing CO₂ emission along with sustainable development has become a tough task for most Southeast Asia countries. However, the country governments have shown their concerns and enthusiasms in this issue. All these countries have signed and ratified Kyoto Protocol, entitled under non-Annex I parties [7]. Most of these countries, too, associated themselves positively in weakly-bound Copenhagen Accord [8]. Numerous conferences and bodies have been formed under these countries as well as ASEAN, oriented to reaching a consensus in mitigating CO₂ emission and global warming effects. We will further discuss about these efforts done in the latter section.

Since the commencement of Kyoto Protocol, developed countries, such as European countries and Japan, have strived to reduce their nations' CO₂ emission, and visible results have been observed. Table 1 shows the changes of CO₂ emission in term of tons per capita of these countries compared to Southeast Asia countries. It is worth to notice that some of the countries, including Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, have comparable CO₂ emission value with developed countries. The drastic increment of the CO₂ emission was related to the flourishing industrial development in the countries, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. In addition, there is a misconception that CO₂ emission from Southeast Asia is less significant compared to the major emitters, United States and China. Indonesia, with the fourth highest population in the world, contributed 4.73% of total world greenhouse gases emission [8]. It is a demand of immediate attention to the CO₂ emission in this region. The biggest challenge and burden faced by Southeast Asia countries now is to find a resolution to keep the development and global warming mitigation in balance.

This article reviews on the current condition of CO₂ emission and global warming in Southeast Asia. CO₂ emission sources in these countries that contribute to the increasing trend, as reported previously, will be discussed. In conjunction with that, we will look into the governmental and regional efforts done to mitigate global warming in term of CO₂ reduction, as well as deficiencies of their implementation, followed by comments and recommendations. It aims to gain attentions of its readers to envisage the seriousness of global warming in this region and bring in more efforts and cooperation to mitigate the problem.