Sustainability
How the Mekong River Commission ignores reality
Among the many “days” celebrated by the international community, one entrant seems especially incongruous. “Mekong Day” was proclaimed by the Mekong River Commission’s (MRC)…
Climate change: less space between one disaster and the next
Last month, another major report on the state of the world’s environment was published – a new assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) with the dry…
Sustainable catch: navigating global fisheries crime
A fish consumed in Australia could be caught near Palau, by a Thai vessel with a Cambodian crew, shipped to a packing plant in Vietnam and sold to a distributor in Taiwan before…
Transforming Australian diplomacy for climate leadership
One of the former Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials involved with a new group “Diplomats for Climate Action Now” recently voiced regret that during his decades…
How to speak green: Europe’s new energy taxonomy
It could “destroy the future of our children,” claimed Austria’s Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler. “We believe this technology is too dangerous,” said German government…
Australia has a solution to Indonesia’s soaring food prices
Indonesia suffers from some of the highest food prices in Southeast Asia. Over the past decade, government policies focussed on food self-sufficiency have contributed to this…
Australia-Indonesia: burn the boats
Last week, Australian Border Force released photographs of burning Indonesian fishing vessels allegedly caught fishing illegally in Australian waters. Border Force reported it had…
China: rejecting rubbish
On hearing Beijing had instituted the ominously named “Operation National Sword” it would have been easy to imagine Chinese warships crashing across the Taiwan Strait or perhaps…
Safeguarding Pacific Island seas starts with indigenous knowledge
Some months ago, I was part of a special ocean and culture story-telling workshop on my home island of Erromango, in southern Vanuatu. There, I listened to traditional elders…
Bad news for Vietnam’s Mekong Delta
The release of recent research from the Netherlands adds an additional insight into what is happening in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, the country’s all-important food producing region…