Julieta Coro, a mother of 11 children who lives with her family close to the sea in Siargao island, recalls how they took shelter from super typhoon Odette’s destruction in December 2021.

One year after super typhoon Odette pummelled scenic Siargao island in December 2021, locals in the Philippines’ surfing capital –  the site of international surfing competitions – are bent on making their hometown stronger, better and an even more popular tourist haven. Still, there is nervousness about the changing behaviour of storms amid climate change.

The vice mayor of the Siargao town, Romina Rusillon Sajulga, recalls how the community put a diarrhoea outbreak under control in the days after super typhoon Odette hit one year ago.

School’s back. But Siargao’s education sector is recovering not only from COVID-19 but from the devastation of Odette – at a time when the reality of having more powerful storms in the climate emergency continues. “We don’t have typhoon drills,” says a local teacher.

These drawings reflect kids memories’ of the massive destruction caused by super typhoon Odette in their hometown, the Philippine island of Siargao.

Filipinos are the most worried about climate change, given the high risk for disasters that their country faces. But a regional survey shows that they are not necessarily aware of the country’s climate policies, such as its lack of a net-zero target.

Cambodia prepares its first submissions for a natural world heritage site – a dolphin conservation area in Kratie province – and a geopark at a wildlife sanctuary in Mondulkiri.

HO CHI MINH CITY | 19 September 2022 At first, it seemed it would take forever to find an electric vehicle (EV) user in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly or still widely known as Saigon. In June, I sent out a bunch of messages to try to find someone who is using an EV, but […]

Many university campuses have reopened in the Philippines, which until August 2022 had among the longest school closures in the world. As students mix in-person with remote-learning classes, they wonder how their pandemic-era education will shape their future.

The May release of a giant stingray back into the Mekong’s deepest waters in Cambodia made headlines, but threats to the Mekong persist. Several Irrawaddy dolphins in Cambodia have died. The last one in Laos, living in a Lao-Cambodia deep pool, died in February.

Viewers see how Irrawaddy dolphins have changed from being friends of fishers in the Mekong Delta, to once-upon-a-time creatures, since they are no longer seen in Vietnam. This animation was created by multimedia student Le Chan Thinh for a school competition.

More than two decades after the ASEAN power grid became a regional commitment, it is far from being a network for transboundary trade in electricity. But this year, Singapore will finally receive electricity from Laos’ hydroelectric power.

Singapore’s consumers can choose who they buy electricity from, but nurturing the demand for power from renewable sources will take more work and more time. The city-state will continue to rely on imports of natural gas, often seen a bridge fuel in energy transition.

Click on our deck of 10 slides to view highlights from Reporting ASEAN’s 2021 survey, which sought journalists’ insights on how they see sustainability as a news topic as well as how their newsrooms discussed it at this time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

‘Greener recovery’ and ‘building back better’ may sound like tired slogans to a pandemic-weary public. But the new year is a good time to look at ways of taking better care of our world, through these examples in Vietnam, the Philippines and Cambodia.

Sustainability investing sounds good, and Singapore has been pushing environmental, social and governance standards in business, finance and the economy. But how can sustainability and the quest for profit meet?

Cycling in the streets of Metro Manila always required courage and luck. But can the pandemic nudge the country toward public transport and road systems that have cyclists and pedestrians, not just cars, in mind?

It’s too early to tell if the popularity of cycling will continue, but it can be a complement to Singapore’s existing rail and bus network. The city-state’s cycling infrastructure was in place even before COVID-19.