Attachments
Alisher Mirzabaev, Ronald Jeremy Antonio, Melanie Connor, Katherine Nelson, Kazuki Saito, and Bjoern Ole Sander
December 2024
Executive Summary
Confronting Climate Change in Southeast Asia’s Rice basket
Southeast Asian countries are facing mounting challenges to their rice crop productivity due to climate change, manifested in sea-level rise and soil salinization, higher frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, including floods, droughts, and heatwaves. The region is crucial for food security in Asia and Africa because of its leading role in international rice production and trade. Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines are at the frontlines of these climate change impacts. Rice production in Southeast Asia is both a victim and a contributor to climate change.
Rice production accounts from 10% to 20% of the total GHG emissions in these countries. Approximately 45% of the ongoing global warming can be attributed to human-caused methane emissions from energy, waste management and agricultural sectors. In fact, methane's shorter lifespan means that effectively reducing its emissions can have a rapid and significant impact on slowing the rate of global warming in the near term, which is essential for addressing the projected overshoot beyond 1.5°C-2.0°C in the next two decades. Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Vietnam included methane reduction in paddy rice cultivation in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to fulfillment of the Paris Agreement, and Thailand and the Philippines have included similar measures in their revised NDCs.
There are numerous technological win-win solutions to simultaneously reduce methane emissions in paddy rice production, increase resource use efficiency and farmer incomes by circular economy approaches, and increase resilience of farmers to climate change impacts. However, they are not being adopted at large scale.
Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines hold significant potential for circular economy development through valorization of rice straw and carbon abatement in rice production, backed by strong political commitments to sustainable, climate-resilient agriculture