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Environment
Latest news and updates about issues impacting the global environment, including climate change, recycling, pollution and sustainable living.
A Tapanuli orangutan, and its young, hanging on a tree in Batang Toru, Tapanuli, North Sumatra, Indonesia in 2015. Photo: Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme/EPA-EFE
Indonesia

‘Could go extinct here’: orangutans at risk as Indonesia floods devastate habitat

Orangutans have disappeared since landslides struck Sipirok in North Sumatra province.

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Indonesia

Is Indonesian disaster response failing Sumatra’s flood victims?

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Indonesia

Jakarta office building fire kills 22, including pregnant woman

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

‘We have this gift’: Hong Kong film shows healing power of city’s nature

Never Too Late shows how four Hongkongers found balance and freedom in the city’s natural spaces and why people should cherish its beauty.

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Diver and environmentalist Hidy Yu in a still from the Hong Kong documentary Never Too Late. Photo: Edko Films
Volcanoes

Video | Force of Kilauea eruption knocks out remote camera

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has been erupting intermittently since December 2024.

Science

China desalination tech makes fresh water cheaper than tap water – plus hydrogen

Facility in Shandong province also produces mineral-rich brine for industrial use, achieving ‘one-in, three-out’ circular economy.

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India

India to pause coal power expansion beyond 2035 amid grid stress

Several Indian utilities are signing contracts with coal-fired power generators to meet a projected surge in demand for cooling.

An Indian farmer sprinkles pesticide on a field as smoke rises from the chimneys of a coal power plant. The demand for coal-based power plants has risen due to prolonged heatwaves. File photo: Reuters
Sri Lanka

627 dead in Sri Lanka landslides as rains batter South, Southeast Asia

At least 1,812 people have been killed in the natural disasters rolling across Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Climate change

Opinion | Fashion industry must tailor climate plans to Asian suppliers’ reality

Efforts to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions in the fashion industry will not work if they rest on a Western design paired with Eastern sacrifice.

Extreme weather

Letters | Asia is waking up to storms that are stronger – and more polluted

Readers discuss new research that shows how typhoons spread microplastic pollution, encouraging the use of an anti-scam app, and the migrant domestic workers who fell victim to the Tai Po fire.

A man crosses a muddy street where cars piled up after being swept away in floods brought on by Typhoon Kalmaegi, in Bacayan, Cebu City, the Philippines, on November 5. Photo: Reuters
The Philippines

6 cyclones, 5 weeks: Philippines can’t escape its endless cycle of disaster

Corruption, complacency and climate chaos conspire to turn the Philippines’ natural hazards into man-made tragedies.

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Satellite imagery shows Super Typhoon Fung-wong as it approaches the Philippines on November 9. Photo: NOAA/EPA
China exports

Waste to wealth: why China is building incinerators around the world

China’s economic slowdown has left its waste-to-energy sector without enough trash to burn. So, companies are heading overseas.

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India

New Delhi’s smog surge linked to 200,000 respiratory cases

Acrid smog chokes Delhi’s skyline each winter, when cool air traps a deadly mix of pollutants from crop burning, factories, and traffic.

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Climate change

Editorial | Asia’s floods a deadly reminder of need to combat growing climate threat

Devastating flooding and landslides have focused attention on disaster preparedness efforts as rising temperatures threaten the region.

A woman carries a child as she wades through a flooded street after heavy rainfall in Wellampitiya, Sri Lanka, on November 30. Photo: AFP
Extreme weather

Asia’s floods kill over 1,000, lay bare human cost of climate inaction

From Indonesia’s deadliest disaster since 2018 to a state of emergency in Sri Lanka, Asia reels from a week of climate-fuelled destruction.

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People walk past the ruins of houses in a village affected by heavy flooding in Batang Toru, Indonesia’s North Sumatra province, on Wednesday. Photo: AP
Indonesia

Indonesia’s cyclone tragedy exposes lethal cost of forest destruction

Green groups say plantations and mines have degraded Sumatra’s land, amplifying a disaster that killed more than 700 and displaced thousands.

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Thailand

One man kept his home dry amid Thailand’s floods. Here’s how he did it

Wicharit Leelakorn fortified his house with a makeshift flood-protection system after the first heavy rain fell on November 21.

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Extreme weather

Video | Indonesian flood survivor returns to ruined home

Separate weather systems brought torrential, extended rainfall to the entire island of Sri Lanka and large parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia in late November 2025.

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South China Sea

Senior Chinese diplomat takes swipe at US over deep-sea mining strategy

‘The oceans are not calm,’ vice-minister warns in comments aimed at Trump executive order pushing American exploitation of seabed minerals.

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Japan

‘Dying en masse’: Japan’s oyster farmers face ruin as waters heat up

Japan’s oyster farms hit by 90% deaths due to rising sea temperatures and high salinity, threatening the country’s top production area.

Extreme weather

Video | Nearly 1,000 killed in flooding across Asia

Torrential storms have unleashed devastating floods across Asia.

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Sri Lanka

Soldiers deployed in Sri Lanka, Indonesia as Asian flood toll tops 1,000

Indonesia sent three warships carrying aid while Sri Lanka used military helicopters to reach people stranded by flooding.

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Army personnel ride a truck carrying boats to rescue stranded people in Wellampitiya, on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka on Sunday. Photo: AFP
Indonesia

Flood death tolls rise in Indonesia, Sri Lanka as aid trickles in

Flooding has killed hundreds in both countries and displaced thousands, as damaged roads and downed power lines hamper rescue efforts.

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India

Opinion | If China can cut its pollution, why can’t India?

India’s pollution crisis demands sustained, year-round action, not just emergency steps that kick in when the air turns toxic.

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South China Sea

China gives disputed Scarborough Shoal a clean bill of health

The Philippines also claims the atoll and has accused Chinese crews of using cyanide to catch fish in the area.

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The reef systems at Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea are healthy and resilient to climate change, according to a Chinese environmental report. Photo: CCTV
Climate change

Opinion | How Cop30 laid bare the new geopolitics of climate action

Fractures, even among the Global South, show the energy transition is not just a technical challenge but a deeply political negotiation.

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Illustration: Craig Stephens
Indonesia

‘We’ve lost everything’: deaths in Indonesia’s flood-hit Sumatra rise to 174

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in North Sumatra and Aceh, while hundreds are missing.

Thailand

Thailand flood death toll doubles as government faces mounting criticism

Floods in Thailand have killed 145 people and displaced millions, with relief efforts accelerating as the waters recede, revealing the damage.

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