Development bank opts for climate-change investment over 'white elephants’

The Asian Development Bank has signalled it will inject more cash into high-quality projects aimed at dealing with climate change and tourism and less on infrastructure "white elephants" as it battles pressure to counter the growing influence of China across the Pacific.

Asian Development Bank president Takehiko Nakao says not investing
 in white elephants is important for future infrastructure development.

Bank president Takehiko Nakao, on his first visit to Australia in three years, told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that it wants to ensure "high-quality" infrastructure is put in place that does not leave recipient nations facing long-term and growing debts.

Read the story from The Age by Shane Wright - “Development bank opts for climate-change investment over 'white elephants’.”

David Karoly says emissions must peak this decade

David Karoly has said the trajectory of global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels must peak this decade.

Beyond that, the ARC fellow at the University of Melbourne said the world’s carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels needed to peak this decade drop by 70 per cent by 2050 and be zero by 2080.

Writing in the “2020 – Vision for a Sustainable Society”, Professor Karoly, an expert in climate change and climate viability,  stratospheric ozone depletion and inter-annual climate variations due to El Nino-Southern Oscillation said these falls were absolutely necessary to limit global warming to less than two degrees.

Coincidentally, as I read Prof Karoly’s “2020”article, a story from the Asian Development Bank headed: “Assessing the Costs of Climate Change and Adaptation in South Asia” was circulated.

That story, loaded with dire warnings for all, discussed agriculture, energy, forests and other ecosystems, health, water and adaptation options, policies and strategies.

 

The book, "2020 - Vision for a sustainable society" was published in 2012 by the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute.