Benjamin Ma

on the atlas — 32

• Land‐use dynamics in the Mekong delta: From national policy to livelihood sustainability - Nguyen - 2020 - Sustainable Development - Wiley Online Library1 savers
• The Mekong Delta is yearning for opportunities - VnExpress International1 savers
• How is Vietnam’s Mekong Delta adapting to a changing climate?1 savers
• HESS - Flooding in the Mekong Delta: the impact of dyke systems on downstream hydrodynamics1 savers
• Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect1 savers
• Palm Oil Powerhouses: Why the EU’s Deforestation-Free Regulation Does Not Work in Southeast Asia | New Perspectives on Asia | CSIS1 savers
• LCFS credit for renewable natural gas | Norton Rose Fulbright - December 20211 savers
• the other side of terror - by Kaitlan1 savers
• The Road to Dubai | The New Yorker1 savers
• International applicability of the SASB standards is being proposed by the ISSB1 savers
• Reporting Scope 3 emissions: Key frameworks and standards1 savers
• Planetary boundaries - Stockholm Resilience Centre1 savers
• The War in Ukraine Is Challenging Southeast Asia's Climate Goals - Bloomberg1 savers
• The ASEAN climate and energy paradox - ScienceDirect1 savers
• Miles to Go: The Future of Emerging Markets – IMF F&D1 savers
• A climate finance goal that works for developing countries | UNCTAD1 savers
• Clean Energy and Decarbonization in Southeast Asia: Overview, Obstacles, and Opportunities1 savers
• Developing countries need to chart their own course to net zero emissions1 savers
• EU aligns sustainability reporting with global standards, but slammed for 'watering down' requirements1 savers
• Southeast Asia’s Coming Climate Crisis | New Perspectives on Asia | CSIS1 savers
• Bezos’ Blue Origin Methane Emissions Were Spotted by the Space Station - Bloomberg1 savers
• Vietnam's Wave Energy Sector Sets Course for a Sustainable Future - Source of Asia1 savers
• Truckers are caught on the front lines of California’s EV push | Ars Technica1 savers
• Rising tides: Why Water-Tech should be top of mind among VCs | by Nucleus Capital | Aug, 2023 | Medium1 savers
• tourism is colonialism - Google Search1 savers
• How Colonialism Contributed to the Maui Wildfires – Mother Jones1 savers
• Maui cultural heritage destroyed in wildfires : NPR1 savers
• Ocean Warming | Vital Signs – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet1 savers
• Shipping's Greener Fuel Quest Runs Into Climate Complications - Bloomberg1 savers
• Pakistan's mangrove revival provides a blueprint for global restoration - ImpactAlpha1 savers
• Curius / Onboarding2621 savers
• Curius / Bookmarks for the extremely curious182 savers

highlights — 132

• The semi-structured questions designed for interviews include three key points: (1) local flood management policies, (2) changes in livelihood practices in the pre-dyke versus post-dyke conditions, and (3) local adaptation strategies.

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• While this line of inquiry reflects the implications of rural development for livelihoods across the Mekong region, the causal relationship between state-led land use dynamics and out-migration under the contested agricultural transformation in the VMD have not been adequately explored.

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• out-migration is commonly perceived as a safety net for poor farmers who lack adequate access to resources and capacity to adapt to change

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• In the Asia and the Pacific, which are frequently afflicted by extreme climatic shocks, the nexus between migration dynamics and environmental change constitutes a key aspect in rural households’ livelihoods

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• The results show a strong relationship between legal settings over the last 30 years on land use and livelihood transitions.

  Land‐use dynamics in the Mekong delta: From national policy to livelihood sustainability - Nguyen - 2020 - Sustainable Development - Wiley Online Library

• The delta is a global hotspot for climate change, the only region in Vietnam where the poverty rate (using the World Bank classification for low middle-income country) increased between 2015 and 2019

  The Mekong Delta is yearning for opportunities - VnExpress International

• In the upper delta, local people used to divert the floodwater with dikes so that farmers could grow rice all year round. But this model is no longer economically profitable or ecologically sustainable.

  How is Vietnam’s Mekong Delta adapting to a changing climate?

• The narratives on the land use change and out-migration nexus in the VMD could mirror the effects of development processes in other countries of the Mekong region and beyond, where state governments still play a dominant decision-making in agricultural development.

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• he study articulates that the wide adoption of agricultural mechanisation promoted by the New Rural Development, while it has sought to modernise the agricultural production, comes at economic costs. It deprives poor farmers of traditional means of livelihoods that they depend on, turning them into the state of being impoverished and socially marginalised in rural areas.

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• In the case of Nepal, the absence of male agricultural labour hampers agricultural productivity and drive households to rely heavily on markets to meet their basic needs

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• In the VMD at present, there seems to be no alternative livelihood option more conducive to the rural poor than out-migration that offers them greater opportunities to escape poverty and improve family well-being.

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• FGDs in the communes also revealed that the out-migration in the VMD is characterised by strong aspirations of the delta migrants to seek for better jobs and settle in modernised areas.

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• . Most of respondents claimed that high dykes prevent fish from entering into flooding open fields, and strong flood flows caused by dyke embankments in the floodplains enable them to migrate downstream through main canals or rivers

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• Our folks have to leave and seek better jobs in cities. (An FGD with a poor group in Phu Thanh B)

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• In this study, precariousness is closely associated with the deprivation of rural employment triggered by agricultural mechanisation

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• Precariousness is not new to the delta’s inhabitants. Precariousness, as Coclanis and Stewart (2011 : 105) defined, is linked to uncertainty, instability, and insecurity characterised by the changing political economy of Vietnam

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• Due to scarce fish in fields, I have to travel far away to capture trash feed for the eels. It is really a hard work.” He agreed that this was not the case before the North Vam Nao flood control system was constructed. Similarly, a female involved in an FGD in Thoi Hung presented her difficulties in collecting natural resources when dykes in the commune were set up to exclude floods and enable crop production. She expressed in the following:

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• Another critical constraint pressing poor farmer’s livelihoods was the squeeze-up of open fields available for the collection of flood-based resources

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• In the floodplains, dykes are built to enable the cultivation of double- or triple-rice crops.

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• Mobility is not accident; it occurs in and across social, economic and political spaces with particular reasons and with particular outcomes.

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• There exists the salient out-migration-oriented livelihood strategy among the rural poor in the VMD

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• The recurring market phenomenon “được mùa, mất giá” (bumper crop, dropping price) has also plagued farmers in gaining desired commodity surplus ( Smith, 2013 ).

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• The emulation for rice-based agricultural production promoted by local governments has led to the evolution and the widespread assimilation of dyke systems across the floodplains. It is the state’s simplistic ideology of the technocratic-based development imposed on the delta ( Käkönen, 2008 ) that has drastically transformed the abundant natural “waterscapes” into the controlled dyke-laden “landscapes

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• The outcomes of this policy have profound implications for rural livelihood and environmental systems. On the one hand, it involves the promotion of rice-based agricultural production and diversification of cash crops (non-rice crops) in dyked areas to deal with the volatility of commodity markets ( Chu et al., 2014 ; Demont and Rutsaert, 2017 ). On the other hand, localised water management approaches underpinned by integrated flood control and irrigation schemes have led to increasing disconnection between flooding zones and between flooding zones (upstream) and salinity zones (downstream) (…

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• From 1995–2000, land use in the delta evolved towards intensive rice farming ( Le et al., 2018 ). The political importance of national food security and rice export particularly has enabled significant state intervention in the rice sector

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• The VMD has undergone the remarkable transformation of the rural landscapes as the result of land use change triggered by hydraulic infrastructure development

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• These processes achieved the building of a hierarchy of themes which are subsequently linked together to present patterns and relationships

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• The strategy of qualitative data analysis involved the use of NVivo software to support the thematic analysis of transcribed texts from FGDs and interviews ( Bazeley and Jackson, 2013 ). Following Neuman’s (2011) approach, three primary analysis steps were taken consecutively, including open coding, axial coding and selective coding.

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• During the FGDs, farmers are facilitated to discuss key topics, including: (1) Change in rural landscapes, (2) Role/impacts of dykes on farming systems and rural livelihoods, (3) Comparative ecological environments between pre-dyke and post-dyke contexts, and (4) adaptation options to post-dyke environmental conditions.

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• Conducting FGDs involved the recruitment of three selected farmer groups (poor, medium, better-off) who are at varying ages with on-farm and off-farm employment

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• Thoi Hung belongs to Co Do district, Can Tho city, which is located within the low depression of the Trans‐Bassac Depression Zone of the floodplains. Since the administration of Song Hau State Farm, the building of a highly controlled embankment system in the commune has enabled local farmers to practise multiple forms of agricultural livelihoods, particularly integrated farming systems (e.g., rice-fish farming) during the flood season.

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• The high-dyke system is intended to reduce local natural flood hazards but may alter the hazard downstream (Triet et al., 2017). Furthermore, this system also increases the potential risk due to dyke break

  HESS - Flooding in the Mekong Delta: the impact of dyke systems on downstream hydrodynamics

• Main sources of household income in the flood season Fishing, collecting aquatic resources, prawn farming Growing sticky rice, field crops, collecting aquatic resources Rice-fish culture, field crops and fruit orchards

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• As one of the most productive areas in the country, the VMD plays an important role in the national economy. The region contributes 50% of rice production, 65% of aquacultural production and 70% of fruits in the country

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• ccordingly, the agricultural sector has gained a significant attention from the central government that the “rice everywhere” policy are subject to be implemented across the VMD

  Land use change driven out-migration: Evidence from three flood-prone communities in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta - ScienceDirect

• Indonesia and Malaysia, collectively accounting for 85 percent of the world’s palm oil production with Indonesia leading in both palm oil and biodiesel production,

  Palm Oil Powerhouses: Why the EU’s Deforestation-Free Regulation Does Not Work in Southeast Asia | New Perspectives on Asia | CSIS

• Commodities heavily linked to deforestation include cattle, coca, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy, and wood. Penalties under this ban include the confiscation and denial into the EU market of non-compliant products, as well as a fine up to 4 percent of total annual turnover in the EU.

  Palm Oil Powerhouses: Why the EU’s Deforestation-Free Regulation Does Not Work in Southeast Asia | New Perspectives on Asia | CSIS

• How this works is simple: if RNG is produced by an RNG project outside California and injected into an interstate natural gas pipeline, the produced volume must match an amount of compressed natural gas withdrawn for use as a transportation fuel in California. This creates a pathway for California LCFS credits. The credits are then sold to an obligated party or to third parties who wish to purchase California LCFS credits.

  LCFS credit for renewable natural gas | Norton Rose Fulbright - December 2021

• I couldn’t fathom what was so unexpectedly troubling on a day that perfect, watching a river that serene. I had no agenda and couldn’t hear the telephone if it rang.

  the other side of terror - by Kaitlan

• I did not know how to answer him then—did not know if it was right for me to answer him at all—because I was going to leave my father and his heart to begin a different life, by myself, for myself, in the country he had left as a child of war.

  the other side of terror - by Kaitlan

• Does this show that even petrostates are now determined to act on climate change—or that fossil fuel interests run everything, including cops?

  The Road to Dubai | The New Yorker

• The SASB, now part of the IFRS Foundation, has, over the years, issued over 70 industry-focused sustainability reporting standards.

  International applicability of the SASB standards is being proposed by the ISSB

• For corporate carbon accounting, an emissions source can be excluded if the source is deemed "not relevant" typically using the 5 relevance criteria of: materiality; influence; stakeholder; risk; outsourcing.

  Reporting Scope 3 emissions: Key frameworks and standards

• Boundaries are interrelated processes within the complex biophysical Earth system. This means that a global focus on climate change alone is not sufficient for increased sustainability

  Planetary boundaries - Stockholm Resilience Centre

• It has been estimated that in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam it will be cheaper to build new solar power than new coal plants by 2022; and by 2029 it will be cheaper to build new solar power than to use already built coal plants in all three countries [99], [100], [101], [102]. Third, coal may also be detrimental for tourism, which is one of the main sources of foreign currency earnings and employment in small- and medium-sized enterprises in Southeast Asia.

  The ASEAN climate and energy paradox - ScienceDirect

• While global demand for coal will remain flat, it is expected to grow 3% per year in ASEAN up to 2040 [56]. Coal is projected to account for over 50% of electricity production in Vietnam by 2030 [96]. It already accounts for more than 50% of electricity production in the Philippines [76] and in late 2017 the country had over 10 GW of new coal power in the pipeline [97]. Even Laos, which has historically been almost wholly reliant on hydropower for electricity, has seen coal-fueled electricity production rise from negligible amounts to over 10 000 GWh in 2017 [98]. By 2030, it is projected that…

  The ASEAN climate and energy paradox - ScienceDirect

• one study found that the six largest Southeast Asian economies allocated none of their recovery spending to the environment. That’s despite larger and more persistent multiplier effects from green spending.

  The War in Ukraine Is Challenging Southeast Asia's Climate Goals - Bloomberg

• The Philippines, for example, imports some 80% of the coal its power generation relies on, while Thailand is a major buyer of coal, oil and even gas from overseas, as its own fields age. For Indonesia, the International Energy Agency says that come 2030, the country could lower oil import bills by a third relative to the business-as-usual scenario, if it sticks to its pathway to hit net zero by 2060 — effectively covering the cost of transition.

  The War in Ukraine Is Challenging Southeast Asia's Climate Goals - Bloomberg

• Consider resource-rich Indonesia, with green manufacturing ambitions, but where coal is also the largest component of the energy mix, a significant export and, directly and indirectly, a hefty employer.

  The War in Ukraine Is Challenging Southeast Asia's Climate Goals - Bloomberg

• However, communities lacking electricity are concentrated in remote areas and can likely be electrified most cost-efficiently by local micro-grid and off-grid solutions rather than large-scale coal power plants [145,146]. Such communities therefore do not benefit greatly from current subsidies, which mainly benefit industrial consumers

  The ASEAN climate and energy paradox - ScienceDirect