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Daily Express
04-05-2025
- Climate
- Daily Express
How Dept stays on top of game
Published on: Sunday, May 04, 2025 Published on: Sun, May 04, 2025 By: Larry Ralon, Ricardo Unto Text Size: Deramakot Forest Reserve is the first and longest Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certifie forests. BETWEEN 2019 and mid-2024, Sabah experienced several forest fires, particularly during drought periods such as the 2019 and 2023-2024 El Niño. Sabah Forestry Department (SFD) records show 1,313 hectares were affected by fires in 2019, 556 hectares in 2020, 69 hectares in 2021, 11 hectares in 2022 and 76 hectares in 2023. The number of incidents fluctuated yearly, with a noticeable increase during prolonged drought. 'The financial and social impact has been significant, including agricultural losses, degraded ecosystems and threats to human health due to air pollution. 'For instance, in 2024, droughts led to water shortages, affecting approximately 56,000 residents in areas like Papar and causing disruptions to agriculture and food security,' he said, adding efforts to mitigate these impacts included cloud seeding and stricter monitoring of open burning. Frederick said the Sabah Fire and Rescue Department also emphasised the need to address deliberate fires started by smallholders, which exacerbate natural fire risks. Although the department has taken proactive measures to address the risk of forest fires, climate change and prolonged drought require continuous efforts to strengthen preparedness. The department employs satellite-based systems and field monitoring to detect fires promptly, with a focus on high-risk areas like peatlands and degraded forests. Early detection strategies include the Fire Weather Index, which is produced daily via the Fire Danger Rating System. 'We also conduct aerial surveillance using drones and ground patrols by SFD personnel.' The department collaborates with the Fire and Rescue Department to equip forest rangers and local communities with firefighting tools and training. 'Water retention systems and firebreaks are established in vulnerable zones, including plantations and reforested areas,' said Frederick. The department formed a Forest Fire Crew with 80 Initial Attack Crew (IAC) members who receive training on fire drills, fire guard construction, water pump handling and fire suppression techniques. 'We continuously educate the public and local communities about fire risks, encouraging responsible practices to prevent open burning. Awareness programmes are conducted in high-risk areas prone to forest fires.' The department integrates fire management into broader conservation and climate change frameworks, including the Sabah Climate Change Action Council (SCAC) and Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES). 'We also collaborate with international and local organisations to strengthen our capacity through funding and technical expertise,' said Frederick. Despite these efforts, there are always ongoing challenges like fires in peatlands which are extremely difficult to control due to their underground spread, requiring specialised equipment and strategies. Then there is the need to scale up resources such as manpower, equipment and funding to match the increasing threats. Prolonged dry seasons and changing rainfall patterns also make fire management more unpredictable, stretching response capacities. Hence, while the department is prepared to handle forest fires, continuous improvements in technology, community engagement and resource allocation are essential. Sustained funding and collaboration remain crucial to enhancing Sabah's resilience against forest fires.' As of December 2023, some 68,760 hectares of degraded or logged forests had undergo enrichment planting and 461,932 hectares had been treated (silviculture treatment). Frederick said the Totally Protected Areas (TPAs) have increased from 12 per cent in 2007 to 27pc (2,012,004 hectares) to date. 'Sabah's goal (part of the Hala Tuju Sabah Maju Jaya development plan) is to achieve 30pc (2.2 million hectares) of TPAs by 2025, leading the nation in achieving the AICHI targets, and in line with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework,' he said.
Euronews
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Three years of war in Ukraine: ‘Environmental damage knows no borders' as emissions rise to new high
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has emitted nearly 230 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents since it began on 24 February 2022. Rising by 31 per cent over the last 12 months, the total is now the same as the annual emissions of Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia combined. This unique methodology from the Initiative on GHG Accounting of War is endorsed by the Ukrainian government and aims to hold Russia liable for these emissions and the resulting climate-related damage. The study is co-authored by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) member Svitlana Krakovska, who is set to deliver the findings in a speech this Monday morning at the 62nd session of the IPCC in Hangzhou, China. Raging wildfires defined the last 12 months for Ukraine According to data compiled from the European Forest Fire Information System, Ukraine was plagued by wildfires in 2024, which were triggered considerably by the war. The area burned over the last 12 months was more than double the annual average from the previous two years, increasing to 92,100 hectares. Emissions from all landscape fires, including forests, more than doubled to 25.8 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents – a 118 per cent increase compared to the wartime annual average for previous years. Most of these fires occurred at or near the frontlines of the war or in border areas. 'Ignition points during war are, for example, shelling at both sides (explosions), firing ammunition, crashing drones, exploding mines, soldiers making campfires,' lead author of the report Lennard de Klerk explains to Euronews Green. 'Due to the ongoing hostilities and mining, firefighters cannot reach the area, so a starting fire becomes much bigger and intensive and will only stop once all fuel (trees and bushes) has been burnt.' What was different about the last year, de Klerk says, was that the weather was unusually dry on the frontlines in eastern Ukraine. Combined with several heat waves this resulted in a very high Fire Weather Index. 'The probability of such weather has become much higher due to climate change. So you see that climate change creates conditions for forest fires, war is triggering them, causing carbon emissions, which causes more climate change. This is a vicious cycle of destruction,' he adds. Uncontrolled fires – fuelled by weather linked to climate change – led to a massive jump in carbon emissions, as well as the destruction of vegetation and other carbon sinks. The latest analysis says that last year stands out as a 'worrying example' of how climate change and armed conflict mutually reinforce each other, fueling a cycle of destruction from global warming. What are other major sources of Ukraine's increased carbon emissions? As fighting continued, emissions from military activity continued a steady growth in the last 12 months, overtaking the other major category of climate costs: the reconstruction of damaged buildings and infrastructure. Warfare has now become the biggest source of emissions after three years. Fossil fuels burned by vehicles like tanks and fighter jets – major consumers of diesel and kerosene – make up the majority of these emissions at 74 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents. Though the use of drones has become more prominent in the last 12 months, this has not replaced the use of carbon-intensive artillery shells, doing little to reduce emissions from ammunition use. Intensified attacks on energy infrastructure brought a 16 per cent rise in this category of conflict emissions. Oil infrastructure was particularly hard hit, causing emissions to surge to 2.1 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents in the last 12 months, compared to 1.1 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents in the preceding 24 months. Planes continued to avoid or were banned from airspace above Russia and Ukraine, meaning they flew further and so racked up more emissions. This has pushed conflict-related aviation emissions up to 14.4 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents since the invasion began. Emissions tied to fleeing refugees remained largely unchanged. The study's findings for the last 12 months are currently preliminary, with some data yet to be published. Ukraine is seeking damages for the carbon emissions of war Those backing the research say Russia should be held liable for the emissions from the war in Ukraine and the resulting climate-related damage. 'The full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine is entering a fourth year. The analysis published today shows that environmental damage knows no borders, and the war is exacerbating the climate crisis that the whole world is facing today,' says Ukraine's minister of environmental protection and natural resources, Svitlana Grynchuk. 'This report is an important document to hold Russia accountable for the harm it is causing to all of us.' With peace negotiations in the air, de Klerk adds that the climate costs of the war should not be forgotten. 'It is too early to say how the peace talks will impact our work, but we believe Russia should compensate Ukraine for the damage done as decided by the UN General Assembly on the 14th of November 2022,' he says. By applying a 'social cost of carbon' of $185 (€178) per tonne of CO2 equivalent, they put Russia's liability after three years of war at over $42 billion (€40.3 billion).
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Climate change increased the odds of Los Angeles' devastating fires, researchers say
As Los Angeles reels from the loss of lives and homes to the Easton and Palisades fires, scientists are asking why the events of this January have been so catastrophic. Climate change very likely played a part in setting the stage that caused multiple fires to sweep through the region, according to analysis from the World Weather Attribution, an international research initiative. "Eight of the eleven models examined also show an increase in extreme January [Fire Weather Index], increasing our confidence that climate change is driving this trend," the group said of their investigation. Earth is currently 1.3°C hotter than it was before the industrial era began. The WWA found that extreme Fire Weather Index conditions are 35 percent more likely to occur in the LA area at this temperature. If the planet increases 2.6°C from its pre-industrial temperature, extreme conditions become another 35 percent more likely. Based on current policies, a 2.6°C higher temperature is the minimum increase the Earth is projected to reach by the year 2100. The researchers noted, however, that the growing odds of those peak conditions is not a linear progression. Other factors also contributed to the widespread devastation across the Los Angeles area, including lack of rain; the region had not received significant rainfall since May 2024. This type of drought condition is 2.4 times more likely at the Earth's current temperature than at its pre-industrial level. Santa Ana winds also caused the rapid spread and difficulties containing the blazes. The team said that the impact of wind is not always reflected well in climate models. The World Weather Attribution conducts rapid studies into extreme weather events to analyze whether climate change was a factor. The international team of researchers aim to address the impact of climate in natural disasters "while the impacts of the extreme weather event are still fresh in the minds of the public and policymakers, and decisions about rebuilding are being made."
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Conditions that fueled L.A. fires were more likely due to climate change, scientists find
Climate change increased the likelihood of the extreme conditions that allowed the recent fires to roar across the Los Angeles area, an international group of scientists said Tuesday. The hot, dry and windy conditions that preceded the fires were about 35% more likely because of human-caused global warming, according to a new report from the World Weather Attribution group, which analyzes the influence of global warming on extreme events. The fires, which started during a ferocious windstorm and after almost no rain had fallen in greater Los Angeles since the spring, have killed at least 29 people and torched more than 16,000 buildings, including homes, stores and schools. 'This was a perfect storm when it comes to conditions for fire disasters — the ingredients in terms of the climate enabling, the weather driving the fires and the huge built environment right downwind from where these ignitions occurred,' John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at the University of California, Merced, who contributed to the report, said at a news conference. Compared to a preindustrial time before fossil fuels were widely used, there are now 23 extra days of 'dry season' on average each year in the Los Angeles region, the report said, making it more likely that fires will coincide with seasonal Santa Ana winds. Park Williams, a professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an author of the report, said fires during cool seasons in Southern California require four conditions: widespread grass or brush that can burn; abnormally dry conditions; an ignition (which almost always comes from a person); and extreme weather, like the recent windstorm. He described each of these conditions as an individual switch in a system that requires all four to be flipped on in order for light to emanate. 'The artificial warming due to human-caused climate change is making the light brighter,' Williams said. The authors of the report analyzed weather and climate models to evaluate how a warmer atmosphere is shifting the likelihood of fire weather (meaning conditions that increase the risk of wildfire). They also tracked how a metric called the Fire Weather Index changed over time. The index tracks temperature, relative humidity and wind speeds, all factors that contribute to the likelihood of fire. The researchers found that the kind of conditions that drove the L.A. area fires are expected to occur on average once in 17 years in today's climate. Such conditions would have been expected once every 23 years without climate change and would have been less extreme when they did occur, the report says. As a group, World Weather Attribution is a loose consortium of scientists who publish rapid findings about climate change's role in extreme weather events. Although their research methods are peer-reviewed, this specific rapid analysis has not been through the rigor of a typical academic review process, which can take months or longer. The group's prior analyses of heat, wildfire and hurricane disasters have held up to scrutiny after initial release and were ultimately published in academic journals. For climate attribution scientists studying how much climate change is to blame for specific events, wildfire disasters are notoriously challenging to untangle, and local nuances are extremely important. In the case of the recent California fires, the report's authors found that although climate change played a role, it was not the sole factor. The hillsides surrounding Los Angeles are filled with brush that has evolved to burn with regularity, and more people are in these areas today than in the past to potentially start fires via cigarettes, power lines, fireworks, vehicles or other sources. Additionally, neighborhood development has pushed deep into areas prone to burn, which means houses are serving as fuel for wildfires and contributing to its rapid spread. 'Fire in Southern California is highly complex, right? It's a combination of a number of things. This is a landscape that's got a really distinct human imprint on it,' Abatzoglou said, adding that the Los Angeles region has 'a large population, a lot of ignitions, a lot of land-use related issues.' The influence of climate change on the Santa Ana winds, one of the driving factors behind the Los Angeles fires, remains murky. The report's authors said that some research suggests the winds will become less intense as the climate warms; however, other research suggests this wind pattern will persist and perhaps intensify during the cold months. 'We don't know of a direct mechanism that would link climate change to the winds, but there could be," Williams said. "We just don't know." This article was originally published on
