Indonesia

According to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Indonesia’s glaciers, which are known to few people, are melting so quickly that they will disappear within a decade. The study is…
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Palm oil is the world’s most versatile vegetable oil. It is present in virtually every consumer product category, from beauty and cosmetics to food and the very material used to construct home furniture. However, global demand for the palm…
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The Indonesian island of Bali has been battling a plastic waste crisis for years, with the government declaring a “trash emergency” in 2017. Now, a new project called Sungai Watch hopes to fight plastic waste, which has decimated not only…
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While countries around the world are dumping their contaminated waste into developing nations in Southeast Asia with little if any ramifications, a community in the eastern coast off Indonesia’s Java island is suffering. Burning the…
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A major report about plastic bottle recycling in the Southeast Asian region reveals the severity of the waste crisis facing countries that simply do not have the adequate infrastructure for collection with hundreds of millions of dollars…
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A new study, conducted by conservationists from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and other environmental organisations, has found that illegal snares are a more severe threat to Southeast Asia’s biodiversity than degradation caused by forest…
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The manufacturers of global brands such as Oreo cookies and Cadbury’s chocolate bars are among some of the major companies still sourcing palm oil from producers linked to the Indonesian forest fires. According to a brand new Greenpeace…
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In a speech in Bangkok, Thailand last Saturday, United Nations Chief Secretary António Guterres described climate change as the “defining issue of our time,” and that Asia must be on the “front line” to fight it by eliminating fossil…
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According to a new study by Climate Central published in Nature Communications, 300 million people will experience annual coastal flooding by 2050, three times more people than previously thought. Many of these people are located in Asia,…
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Veganism is officially mainstream. If you asked for vegan food at a restaurant a few years ago, you might get a surprised, even annoyed look in return. You might have had to explain that it meant "no dairy, no animal by-products, no egg" -…
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Asia is home to many of the planet’s wonders, including beautiful fine sand beaches and coastlines. However, due to years of plastic pollution, marine litter and waste mismanagement, many of these beaches are no longer as pristine as they…
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Once Indonesia’s primary source of water, the Citarum river has now become so polluted it ranks as the “world’s most polluted river” by the World Bank. The scale of pollution is visible in the mounds of garbage, hazardous sludge and dead…
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Youth in Asia and the Pacific went on strike for the planet this past Friday September 20 2019, part of 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg 'Fridays For Future' campaign, to demand climate justice. Millions took to the…
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For months, millions of young climate activists around the world have been taking to the streets on Fridays to demand governmental action on our planet’s most urgent issue: climate change. Ahead of the United Nations Climate Action Summit,…
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Foodtech startup Better Nature is on a mission to revolutionise tempeh, the high-protein traditional Indonesian fermented soybean product which is a staple of the country's daily diet. The company's founding team, which includes a Hong…
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In a just-released report, Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas outlines the eco-forward steps it has taken in recent years in recent years from investing in conservation to phasing out plastics. With tourists increasingly sensitive to…
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As part of our Covering Climate Now week-long series, we are focusing on the climate crisis in Asia. As we reported earlier this week, Asia and the Pacific are particularly vulnerable to the most destructive effects of climate change.…
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While the effects of climate change will undoubtedly be felt all around the world, it will have the most devastating impact on Asia and the Pacific, home to roughly 60% of the global population. Extreme weather events, such as prolonged…
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In August, while social media channels were ablaze (!) with anger over the Amazonian rainforest wildfires, we reported on the fires engulfing forests right at our doorstep in Southeast Asia. These fires, predominantly located within the…
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It's seriously time to break up with packaging. It's unnecessary, wasteful and there are now so many packaging-free shops that you actually can live without it. When we realised how many zero-waste bulk buy shops had popped up across Asia,…
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Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most important holidays of the Chinese calendar, and at the center of this special time is the gifting of the mooncake. In Chinese culture, mooncakes are enjoyed between families and friends, and presented…
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