Eco-Business

Thai investment in Laos hydropower reveals dire disconnect in the Mekong

Over the past year, the pace of hydropower development along the mainstream of the Mekong River in Laos has picked up, fuelled by long-term funding agreements. Chinese and Thai hydropower project investors have been signing Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), which usually cover a 30-year period, ...

Ming Li Yong

Vietnam climate campaigner Nguy Thi Khanh released from prison

Human rights groups have welcomed the early release from prison of Nguy Thi Khanh, a prominent Vietnamese climate campaigner. Khanh was incarcerated for allegedly not paying tax on her winnings from the 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize in the summer of 2022, a charge human rights and climate groups have condemned. She ...

Robin Hicks

Pointing out culprits of Mekong’s problems is not our mission: MRC Secretariat CEO

The 4th Mekong River Commission Summit, held in Vientiane on 4-5 April 2023, saw heads of state and ministers from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam come together to discuss the sustainable development of Southeast Asia’s greatest river. At its conclusion, the four countries signed the ‘Vientiane Declaration’, in ...

Aron White, thethirdpole.net

Explainer: What is ecocide?

What is ecocide? In short, ecocide refers to the mass destruction of ecosystems. Formally, it is defined as “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts”. ...

Kate Yeo

In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, sand mining means lost homes and fortunes

When a riverbank subsided and gave way four years ago, Tran Van Bi’s house collapsed into a river in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. Everything his family had accumulated over 32 years was gone in an instant. “At that time, when I heard the sound of screaming, I ...

Dinh Tuyen

Another poor wet season endangers Cambodia’s biggest lake and its people

Climate change, unsustainable and illegal fishing and the proliferation of hydropower dams on rivers that feed Tonle Sap threaten the livelihoods of over one million Cambodians. Sarun Nong, a fisher on Koh Krabey, a small island in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap lake, takes another look at the fishing net ...

By Ate Hoekstra, The Third Pole

Wet-season dam operations hit Mekong ecology and communities

In early July 2021, Chinese dams began restricting the flow of the Upper Mekong. Researchers and activists say the consequences downstream are unknown and potentially severe. As China celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party on 1 July, the Jinghong dam in Yunnan Province began restricting ...

Tyler Roney, The Third Pole

Covid-induced energy plunge shrinks coal development in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia’s response to the Covid‑19 outbreak has curtailed electricity use and industrial production, pushing down coal consumption even further this year, according to the latest report from a non-governmental organisation which monitors worldwide fossil fuel infrastructure. Even before Covid-19, new coal plant construction was already slowing in the ...

Hannah Alcoseba Fernandez

Vietnam considers scrapping half of coal power plant pipeline in favour of gas and renewables

The coming decade could see Vietnam shelve nearly half of its currently planned coal power plant capacity as alternative sources of energy take up growing shares in its power mix, the government-affiliated research body tasked with drawing up the nation’s next power sector roadmap has ...

Tim Ha

Vietnam approves 7 GW of new wind projects

Vietnam has given the green light to almost a hundred new wind energy installations, indicating the nation keeps powering ahead with renewables amid fears of looming power shortages as industry and population boom. The Vietnamese government on Thursday (25 June) formally approved 7 gigawatts (GW) worth of ...

Tim Ha

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