The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
Globally, the estimates suggest that there are 170 new cases of traffic pollution-related asthma per 100,000 children every year, and 13% of childhood asthma cases diagnosed each year are linked to traffic pollution. The country with the highest proportion of traffic pollution-attributable childhood asthma incidence was South Korea (31%), the …
South Asia remained the fastest growing region in the world last year, but growth remained driven by domestic demand – and not exports – which resulted in another year of double-digit volume growth of imports. The value of imports was further pushed up by rising oil prices. The widening current …
The life expectancy of children born today will be shortened by 20 months on average by breathing the toxic air that is widespread across the globe, with the greatest toll in south Asia, according to a major study. Air pollution contributed to nearly one in every 10 deaths in 2017, …
Over two dozen people were killed in a severe thunderstorm that swept through parts of southern Nepal late on Sunday and hundreds more were injured, police and officials said. Nepal’s Prime Minster K.P. Sharma Oli in a tweet said 25 people had been killed, and around 400 were injured. “Helicopters …
This paper examines the concept of urban clusters and explores its application in South Asia. Drawing lessons from international case studies, it highlights the advantages of clustered urbanization. It identifies developments around core cities Delhi, Dhaka, and Mumbai as mature clusters; and Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Colombo, Kathmandu, and Pune as …
This synthesis report summarizes findings from a participatory assessment of socio-economic drivers, conditions, and climatic and environmental stresses leading to different levels of vulnerabilities in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region. The study sites included high mountain, mid-hill, and downstream regions of the Indus, Upper Ganga, Gandaki, and Teesta– a …
A recent film glorifying rangers in Chitwan National Park, and a Buzzfeed investigation highlighting human rights abuses by those same rangers, have prompted debate over Nepal’s conservation practices. The country has achieved remarkable success in protecting species like the greater one-horned rhino, and conservationists say efforts to engage with and …
The World Bank earlier this month approved $185 million in financing to help Bangladesh develop up to 310 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy and to mobilize private sector participation to help meet the growing electricity demand in the country. Launched on March 1, the Bangladesh Scaling-up Renewable Energy Project will …
This paper presents a new dataset of comparable employment indicators for South Asian countries, constructed from more than 60 primary data sources from 2001 to 2017. The main contribution of the paper is to curate the information provided by individual respondents to censuses and surveys, in a way that is …
Through a review of the literature, this paper examines the links of food and agriculture with nutrition in South Asia, a region characterized by a high level of malnutrition. The review finds that the level and stability of food prices play a critical part in food consumption, with rising prices …
Sri Lanka's Health Ministry will introduce e-health cards by the end of this year, which will uplift the country's free state health sector, local media reported Thursday. Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said the e-cards will include all the health information of an individual citizen which will make free health care …
Protecting and expanding suitable habitats for wildlife is key to the conservation of endangered species, but owing to climate and land use change the ideal habitats of today may not be fitting in 30 or 50 years. An international team of scientists therefore predicted range shifts of Asian elephants in …
This paper contributes to improving understanding of how funders, practitioners and other stakeholders can support and facilitate transformation in adaptation to climate change. It uses the latest academic literature, as well as learning from practice, to put forward a conceptual framework for determining the likelihood of an adaptation initiative delivering …
While fossil fuel emissions in New Delhi account for 80 percent of the air pollution plume during the summer, emissions from biomass burning (such as crop residue burning) in neighboring regions rival those from fossil fuels during the fall and winter. "Black carbon aerosols are damaging to human health and …
Staff at Bardia National Park in mid-western Nepal have been looking after a “special guest” for the last eight years. The inmate, an Indian or greater one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) born in Chitwan National Park in central Nepal, is confined to a 67-square-meter (720-square-foot) enclosure. “We call him Vikram,” says …
A joint World Bank and the International Labour Organization (ILO) report “Exports to Jobs: Boosting the Gains from Trade in South Asia” breaks new ground in examining the impact of exports on local labor markets in South Asia. It uses an innovative approach, analyzing the effect on local employment, wages …
Access to safe drinking water and sanitation is the foremost resilience measure for climate change adaptation in the long run as well as an emergency response to get life back on track after an extreme weather event or a disaster. Although WASH is an important reactive strategy for disaster response …
Coastal communities in South and Southeast Asia are strongly tied to marine and coastal resources that are vital for their food security and livelihoods. Meanwhile, pervasive expansion of the global economy is leading to rapid changes in coastal and marine resources, specifically through overfishing and hasty coastal development. Such rapid …
They are part of a group of 50 which have received £20 million funding from the United Kingdom Eighteen research institutions in India are among a group of 50 institutions — called the South Asian Nitrogen Hub (SANH) — in the United Kingdom and South Asia that have secured £20 …
With the consequence of climate change, it gradually extends towards inland water and soil. This scenario of gradual salinity intrusion into the coastal areas of Bangladesh is very threatening to the primary production system, coastal biodiversity and human health, said researchers. The total amount of salinity affected land in Bangladesh …
