News & Activities

A Resilient Workforce, Adapting to Climate Change in Southeast Asia Mega Irena (Head, Labour and Civil Service Division | ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Department)Felicia Clarissa (Officer, Labour and Civil Service Division | ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Department)The impact of climate change has escalated globally, with an estimated 2.8 trillion US dollars in global loss and damage from 2000 to 2019, according to a 2023 study cited by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Southeast Asia, one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change impacts, has seen a surge in extreme weather events in recent years. This year, four powerful storm systems, including Super Typhoon Man-Yi, battered the Philippines in just ten days. Strong typhoons also recently hit Thailand, Viet Nam, and Myanmar, causing floods and landslides and displacing thousands. In previous years, scorching and dry weather in parts of the region disrupted the livelihoods of affected communities. These climate change-related disasters cause significant death and destruction, impacting workers' incomes, productivity, and livelihoods. The region is foreseen to suffer the most losses in GDP due to the exacerbating effects of climate change on agriculture (UNESCAP, 2023).Read more at https://theaseanmagazine.asean.org/edition/towards-a-mobile-and-connected-asean/

Research in Southeast Asia quantifies how much wildfire smoke hurts peoples’ moods; finds the effect is greater when fires originate in other countries.Peter Dizikes | MIT NewsPublication Date: February 13, 2024Wildfires in Southeast Asia significantly affect peoples’ moods, especially if the fires originate outside a person’s own country, according to a new study.The study, which measures sentiment by analyzing large amounts of social media data, helps show the psychological toll of wildfires that result in substantial air pollution, at a time when such fires are becoming a high-profile marker of climate change. “It has a substantial negative impact on people’s subjective well-being,” says Siqi Zheng, an MIT professor and co-author of a new paper detailing the results. “This is a big effect.”The magnitude of the effect is about the same as another shift uncovered through large-scale studies of sentiment expressed online: When the weekend ends and the work week starts, people’s online postings reflect a sharp drop in mood. The new study finds that daily exposure to typical wildfire smoke levels in the region produces an equivalently large change in sentiment.“People feel anxious or sad when they have to go to work on Monday, and what we find with the fires is that this is, in fact, comparable to a Sunday-to-Monday sentiment drop,” says co-author Rui Du, a former MIT postdoct who is now an economist at Oklahoma State University.Read more at https://news.mit.edu/2024/study-measures-psychological-toll-wildfires-0213

Asian Economic PapersLink: https://aep.jci.edu.my/aboutAsian Economic Papers is sponsored by the Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University, United States; the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, South Korea; the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia, Sunway University, Malaysia; the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, Indonesia; and Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. AEP’s articles focus on rigorous, objective analysis of key economic issues of a particular Asian economy or of the broader Asian region, and offer creative solutions to these Asian economic issues.AEP selects articles from open submissions and solicits articles from the top experts in the fields that are of high contemporary interest. Authors present their analyses at the Asian Economic Panel, which convenes thrice yearly in different parts of the world. The panel, which held its first meeting in April of 2001, invites about forty leading economists from all over the world to each meeting to discuss the subjects of that particular meeting. The discussion of each topic begins with the presentation of an analytical paper.AEP makes its publication decisions after reviewing the revised papers. The proceedings of the AEP conference are edited and published thrice yearly in a journal, Asian Economic Papers (MIT Press).Editor-in-Chief: Wing Thye WooEditors: Sungbae An, Fukunari Kimura, Ming Lu, and Jeffrey D. SachsFor more details, please see the Editorial Info.Instructions for Authors: https://aep.jci.edu.my/instructions-for-authors/

Venue: Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, ThailandDate: November 16 - 21, 2025More Information: https://www.pvsec-36.comThe 36th International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference (PVSEC-36), which will take place in Bangkok, Thailand in 2025, is a great pleasure to extend an invitation to you to submit an abstract. All fields of study related to photovoltaic science and technology are welcome to submit articles, including but not limited to basic physics and chemistry, cell and module technologies, characterization methods, system integrations, grid integration, energy management, and market and regulatory challenges. The program for PVSEC-36 is structured around six key areas, along with cross-cutting topics:PV in Sustainable Energy Systems, Policy: Policy, Market, Finance, Deployment, Carbon Neutrality, Grid Integration and Energy Management, PV Status in Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN).System Engineering and Field Performance: Integrated PV and Advanced Applications of PV, Field Performance of PV Systems, Standard, End of Life.Wafer-based Silicon PV: Materials, Processes, Fundamentals, Cells and Modules.Thin-film PV and Modules: Organic and Inorganic PV, Compound Thin-Film PV, III-V High Efficiency Devices.Perovskite and Emerging PV: Perovskite PV, Emerging Materials and New Concepts.Cross Cutting Areas: Tandem PV, Artificial Intelligence in PV Development, Solar to X, Sciences, Materials and Devices, PV and Energy Storage Systems.