2024
CNA podcast: Climate Conversations – Why a complex problem like climate change needs multi-disciplinary expertise. 25 April 2024.
CGSEA Principal Investigator Professor David Taylor and Collaborator Asst Prof Janice Lee were interviewed by CNA for a podcast episode in partnership with the ongoing, and inaugural, IDEAS Festival. First speaking about their academic backgrounds and current academic interests–including their work with the CGSEA grant!–they then followed into a lively conversation about how they manage working with large groups of people, on expansive sets of issues. They emphasise how the interdisciplinary nature of the teams they are, or have been, part of mirror the complex dimensions of what these teams are looking at–and how this is essential to producing engaged scholarship. Prof Taylor and Asst Prof Lee end the podcast speaking about innovative uses of pedagogy in both learning and science communication–with interpretive dance as one of them!–and their advocacy for why the Humanities and Social Sciences matter.
Click here to listen to the full podcast.
2023
Tan R (2024) Indonesia is clearing vast peatlands to grow food. Climate costs are dire. Washington Post, 19 January.
CGSEA Principal Investigator Professor David Taylor was interviewed by the Washington Post for an article looking at the environmental impacts of peatland cleaning in Indonesia. Professor Taylor drew upon his decades of research looking at peatlands in Asia and Africa to estimate that ‘”To restore these vast areas of peat forest being destroyed will take years and huge investments in labor and funds,”… To do it on the timeline that global leaders have set for the world to achieve net-zero emissions? “Near impossible,” Taylor said.’
Click here to read the full article, including Professor Taylor’s contributions.
Chenoli S, Varkkey H & Ooi J (2024) Reflections from academics on attending COP28 – Sheeba Chenoli, Helena Varkkey, and Jillian Ooi. Scoop, 9 January.
CGSEA Collaborator Assoc Professor Helena Varkkey, who is Deputy Dean of Research at Universiti Malaya (UM), was interviewed by Scoop alongside two other UM colleagues for her reflections following her experiences speaking at, and attending, COP28.
Assoc Professor Helena Varkkey ‘was invited to be a panellist in a Harvard University side event on reducing global methane emissions. Here, Helena shared findings from a recently completed project on the progress of methane emissions reductions in Malaysia.
Such opportunities give us the rare chance to be heard by UN officials, country delegates, and a whole range of stakeholders simultaneously’ Assoc Professor Varkkey and her colleagues reflect. ‘We can receive instant feedback from like-minded researchers, get cutting-edge ideas for our future work, and network. It gave us plenty of food for thought that we could take home to feed into our consultations with policymakers and others.’
Click here to read the full article.
Sustaining Our Blue Planet: Blue Carbon Solution for Climate Change, 28 November 2023
CGSEA Research Fellow Jay Mar D. Quevodo was invited to share his research on community perceptions of blue carbon ecosystems for a seminar hosted by Sam Ratulangi University, Indonesia.
Community Composting Workshop, 21st November 2023
CGSEA Senior Research Fellow Michelle Miller and Research Fellow Wayne Stanley Rice attended a composting workshop presented by one of our partners, Food Citizen, at Bukit Panjang Community Club.
Science Cafe event on Food, Sustainability and Climate Change, 19th November 2023
Research Fellow Wayne Stanley Rice attended an event presented by Science Centre Singapore, with support from National Parks Singapore. Event concluded with a tour of the edible gardens. Purpose was to promote awareness around the issues of food sustainability and climate change, and the importance of public participation in reducing wood wastes through organic composting.
For more information, see: https://www.science.edu.sg/whats-on/science-cafe/an-eat-mersive-experience
CGSEA represented at Kick-off ASEAN Peatland Management Strategy 2023-2030 and Way Forward Regional Workshop, Bangkok, 14-15 November 2023
CGSEA was well-represented at the recent, two-day workshop organised by the Environment Division of the ASEAN Secretariat involving representations of ASEAN Member States and other stakeholders in peatlands in the region. The workshop, which was held to kick off the ASEAN Peatland Management Strategy (APMS) 2023-2030, was funded by the EU and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (or simply GIZ) as part of Component 1 of Sustainable use of Peatland and Haze Mitigation in ASEAN (SUPA).
David Taylor, PI of the CGSEA project, chaired the workshop. The first day was a closed-door event in which representatives of ASEAN Member States and the ASEAN Secretariat discussed the APMS 2023-2030 in the context of lessons learned from and new developments since its predecessor (APMS 2006-2020), and agreed an implementation road map to the end of 2025. Day two of the workshop involved representatives of ASEAN Member States and other stakeholders in sustainable peatland management, including the Global Environment Centre/ASEAN Investment Framework, SUPA-GIZ, International Fund for Agricultural Development, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, PM Haze, and Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. In addition to chairing the second day of the workshop, David also presented on how universities such as NUS can help facilitate implementation of the APMS 2023-2030.
Race to Zero: Empowering and expanding trusted carbon markets, 24 October 2023
David Taylor, PI of the CGSEA project, presented an evening talk at Asia Square, Singapore, as part of the Race to Zero series, organised by KPMG Business Foundry, that focused on the role of natural carbon sinks in voluntary carbon market-led attempts to reduce net carbon emissions. The seminar was followed by a lively panel discussion.
Salvo A & Lee L (2023) How open data and gamification can make Singapore’s urban travel greener. The Business Times, 16 September.
CGSEA Collaborator Assoc Professor Alberto Salvo co-write a piece for The Business Times Weekend advocating for the use of open data and gamification in shaping consumers’ choices. They write that a ‘comprehensive open data initiative centred on each person’s urban travel choices can help close [the] intention-action gap’ between their desire, and their ability to make ‘greener’ choices.
Click here to read the full article.
ECR Journeys: A socio-cultural expedition into environmental governance, 9 August 2023
The Applied Ecologist, in ‘amplifying the voice of early career ecologists from around the world working in the field of applied ecology to help inspire the next generation’, highlighted CGSEA Research Fellow Wayne Stanley Rice.
Varkkey H, Cole R & Kenney-Lazar M (2023) Shifting Regulatory Regimes of Agribusiness and Plantation Investments in Southeast Asia: From RSPO to ASEAN-RAI. ARIscope, 31 March.
Co-PI Kenney-Lazar and Collaborators Varkkey and Cole co-wrote a blogpost for ARIscope exploring the ‘shifting regulatory regimes of agribusiness and plantation investments in Southeast Asia.’ They conclude by noting how voluntary disclosure regimes can be helpful in their own right, but challenges, nonetheless, persist in relation to the adoption of more sustainable practices by business and governments alike.
Carbon Governance in Southeast Asia (CGSEA) 