Climate change : employment implications in the coastal areas of Asia Pacific

1. Climate change : employment implications in the coastal areas of Asia Pacific Research Conference : Green Jobs for Asia and the Pacific Hotel Okura, Niigata, Japan, 21-23 April 2008 Poh Poh Wong National University of Singapore Email : geowpp@nus.edu.sg

2. Outline Asia Pacific : coastal aspects, resources development; environmental degradation and management Climate change and tourism; mitigation measures; poverty reduction Coastal tourism : impacts, adaptation measures for coastal areas and implications for employment

3. Coastal environment High percentage of population at coastal areas Megadeltas, particularly vulnerable to climate change and sea-level rise. For modest 40 cm SLR, annually flooded people would increase from 13 million to 94 million by 2100 Coastal communities depend coastal environment for goods and services E.g. mangroves are a critical habitat for coastal biodiversity, provide shoreline protection and valuable resources

4. Coastal degradation Destruction of mangroves through aquaculture Destruction of coral reefs through blast and poison fishing Even coastal erosion caused by tourism development

5. Environmental measures Rehabilitation of coastal environment EIA for tourism projects; including setback lines Creation of MPAs (marine protected areas) Ecolabelling of beaches Environmental tax, e.g. Seychelles

6. Climate change and tourism Air travel responsible for 2-3% of total GHGs Increased warming : higher latitude countries to benefit; implies reduced travel to warmer countries Ski tourism to be reduced by warming trend

7. Mitigation measures in tourism New airframes and engine technology to reduce substantively emission levels Tourism : embrace new carbon-friendly technologies, e.g. in construction, using heat from waste incineration, etc

8. Tourism jobs and poverty reduction In accordance with Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Supply side : ecotourism as key product (nature and culture) Demand side : increasing group of travellers with social conscience Supported by new corporate social responsibility mindset and financing institutions ST-EP: Sustainable Tourism for Elimination of Poverty

9. Climate change impacts on coastal tourism Beach tourism becomes less attractive with increased heat index Rising sea level : beach erosion; drowning of atolls and coral islands Increase of 1-2oC above normal would be sufficient to induce bleaching; expected as early as 2030 and virtually certain by 2070 Pressure on water resources Vector-borne diseases increase - tourism is vulnerable to such events More immediate impacts would be floods, extreme events (e.g. cyclones)

10. Climate change adaptation : jobs Existing CZM (coastal zone management) framework for slew of adaptation measures to be implemented Alternative livelihoods in ecotourism projects Environmental friendly resorts : construction, maintenance MPAs : enforcement and monitoring In light of 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, DRR (disaster risk reduction) jobs to be included in adaptation

11. Coastal defences : jobs Not necessary construction of dykes and seawalls Rehabilitation and maintenance of coastal vegetation belts : mangroves, coastal forests/dunes Coral reefs ecosystems rehabilitation : some hope

12. Thank you geowpp@nus.edu.sg