Asia Program Asia Projects Conflict Management in East Asia Energy and Security in Asia Environmental Security in Asia Northeast Asia Southeast Asia South Asia Events Publications

Environmental problems such as deforestation, carbon emissions, and the pollution of water and soil have become increasingly recognized as non-traditional security issues. The scarcity, degradation, and unequal distribution of environmental resources can lead to social instability with serious economic and political repercussions. This is due to the transboundary nature of many environmental issues. It may also have possible implications for the traditional security paradigm with inter-state conflict over marine resources or even geo-political alterations as a result of climate change with rising sea levels.

Climate change is held by some scholars to represent one of the greatest global security threats of the 21st century. Further, the absence of effective cooperative structures and strategies between states serves to exacerbate environmental problems. Strengthening regional institutional arrangements for more effective environmental governance is thus a key challenge. While the emerging centrality of environmental concerns in regional security and development is clear, mechanisms of regional cooperation are not fully developed. There are question marks over how to measure and react to trends, and the transit from problems to solutions.

East Asia with the world's largest population, rapidly growing economies as well as vulnerability to ecological disasters, both human and manmade (with each exacerbating the other), makes it a key concern for researchers and policymakers. It is estimated, for instance, China is now the world's largest CO2 emitter, having overtaken the United States in 2007. It is further predicted that China will be responsible for 37 per cent of global emissions by 2030 and that Indonesia displays the largest forest loss of any country with an estimated 1.9 million hectares lost each year. The most East Asian countries have experienced during their respective phases of rapid industrialization, combined with a sharp surge in the consumption of energy resources, severe environmental degradation. Spurred by their desire to catch up with the West economically, the countries in Asia concentrated their efforts on industrial development. Additionally, transboundary pollution is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon in East Asia. For example, acid rain affects more than 30 per cent of Chinese territory and also reaches as far as the Korean Peninsula and Japan, especially during winter when strong north westerly winds blow over the region. The transboundary character of East Asia's issues and challenges is also apparent as winds have caused smoke from forest fires in Indonesia to settle over neighbouring countries, particularly Singapore and Malaysia, causing haze pollution and associated health disorders. As such, there is a timely need to evaluate the goals, objectives, and policies of regional cooperation for environmental protection.

This project mainly examines the challenges for sustainable development in East Asia in terms of environmental management. It also explores an overview of the European experience in environmental management and cooperation to provide some lessons the Nordic countries hold for sustainable development in East Asia.

The topics of this project include the following:

• How to balance economic development and social pressures with environmental protection and sustainability - and how to exploit win-win opportunities?
• How to share the burden of regional environmental protection among a diversity of states of varying sizes and levels of economic development?
• How to implement binding environmental measures and develop policy coherence in different regulatory frameworks among ASEAN and EU member states respectively?
• How to enhance environmental cooperation regionally and domestically between governments, agencies, and communities?
• What are the differences and similarities in strategies and experiences of regional cooperation in Europe and East Asia? What are the lessons drawn?
• What is the scope for intra-regional cooperation to meet global environmental commitments?