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1571. IRRI: Supporting Rice Research Worldwide—Working with Japan to Address Rice Production under Climate Change
Rice, an essential part of the Japanese diet, is not immune to the effects of climate change. Rice production worldwide must simultaneously address multiple challenges, including high temperatures, water scarcity, pests and diseases, and the need to reduce environmental impacts and greenhouse gas emissions. One institution that has long tackled these issues internationally is the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), headquartered in the Philippines. Japan and IRRI have worked together for more than 60 years through rice research and exchanges among researchers.
In October 2026, IRRI, the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), and the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) will jointly hold the International Strategy Forum and Technical Workshop on Heat-Resilient Rice Production Systems in Tokyo. This article introduces IRRI’s role and the history of its cooperation with Japan, while considering the research partnerships that will be important for rice production under a changing climate.
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1570. Protecting Rice from Heat: Understanding Heat-Induced Sterility and Building Heat-Resilient Rice Production Systems
Japan’s annual mean temperature has risen over the long term, and the Japan Meteorological Agency reports that unusually warm years have occurred frequently since the 1990s. How do rising temperatures and heat waves associated with climate change affect rice yield and quality? This article explains how heat-induced sterility occurs and why it is important to combine heat-tolerant varieties, crop management, climate-impact assessment, and future projections. On October 13 and 14, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), JIRCAS, and the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) will jointly hold an international forum and technical workshop to discuss research priorities and directions for international collaboration toward heat-resilient rice production systems.
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1569. August 2026 tied as the world’s hottest month on record, at 1.65°C above pre-industrial levels
On 10 September 2026, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) announced that the global-average surface air temperature in August 2026 was 16.96°C, tying July 2023 as the hottest month on record across all calendar months. This was 0.85°C above the 1991–2020 average and 1.65°C above the estimated 1850–1900 pre-industrial average. It was the first month since November 2025 in which the monthly global-average temperature exceeded the pre-industrial level by more than 1.5°C.
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1568. Thailand’s Unusual Black Egg, the “Chaiya Salted Duck Egg”
In a previous issue of the Southeast Asia Liaison Office Newsletter, we introduced durian as a Thai agricultural product registered under the Geographical Indication (GI) system. This article examines the Chaiya Salted Duck Egg, an unusual regional specialty from southern Thailand, through the links among the local environment, duck production, salt-curing technology, and the GI system. Rather than treating it only as a distinctive food tradition, the article considers how production standards, measurable quality attributes, and regional branding can add value to an agricultural product.
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1567. Limiting the Magnitude and Duration of Overshoot Beyond 1.5°C: UNEP’s “Limiting Overshoot” Report
On September 2, 2026, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released Limiting Overshoot: Navigating Exceedance of 1.5°C and Pathways towards Return. Recognizing that global average temperatures are likely to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels within the next few years, the report sets out the actions needed to limit the resulting impacts and return warming to below 1.5°C as soon as possible.
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1566. Intensifying Water-related Disasters and Climate Risks in Asia: Background and Preparedness Based on WMO Reports
In August 2026, heavy rainfall caused damage in many parts of Japan. Around the border between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, a debris flow and flood also occurred, possibly associated with a rapid slope failure involving a glacier, causing extensive damage to downstream settlements and infrastructure. This article reviews two reports by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and places water-related disasters in the broader context of global and regional changes in climate and water resources.
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1565. Record-High Sea Surface Temperatures and the Compound Risks of Marine Heatwaves and Ocean Acidification
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) announced that the global average sea surface temperature reached a new record high on 22 August 2026. In addition, a study published in AGU Advances showed that “compound extremes,” in which marine heatwaves and ocean acidification extremes occur simultaneously, are occurring more frequently than expected, particularly in low- to mid-latitude ocean regions.
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1564. Climate-Induced Severe Water Scarcity May Raise Global Wheat Price Risks
Severe water scarcity intensified by climate change can affect not only crop yields but also food price volatility through international markets. A new study suggests that wheat, among major staple crops, is particularly exposed to price risks associated with widespread water shortages.
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1563. One-Quarter of the Global Population Faces Extremely High Water Stress
According to new data from WRI’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas, 25 countries, home to one-quarter of the global population, face extremely high water stress each year. These countries regularly use up almost their entire available renewable water supply. At least half of the world’s population, or around 4 billion people, lives under highly water-stressed conditions for at least one month of the year.
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1562. Conserving Vegetable Diversity to Diversify Diets
While insufficient vegetable intake has become a global health concern, the diversity of vegetable species, varieties, and crop wild relatives that support our diets is also being lost. A Perspective published in PNAS argues that conserving vegetable biodiversity and linking it to breeding, school meals, local markets, and policy can be key to improving nutrition and building food systems resilient to climate change.
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1561. A Potentially Unprecedented El Niño and Global Weather Risks
On 21 August 2026, the UK Met Office reported that the El Niño event currently developing could become an exceptional event, unprecedented in recent decades and possibly the largest since the 19th century. According to the Met Office forecast, sea-surface temperatures in the Nino3.4 region, one of the key indicators used to assess the strength of El Niño, may exceed 3°C above average in the coming months.
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1560. Southeast Asia Liaison Office News: Thailand National Science and Technology Fair 2026 Opens
The Thailand National Science and Technology Fair 2026 (NST Fair 2026), one of the country's largest science and technology events, opened on August 15. The fair runs through August 23 and typically attracts around 200,000 students and members of the public each year.
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1559. Food Systems Performance Assessment Reveals Urgent Gaps and a Path to 2050
Progress toward food systems transformation is generally off track for 2030, with major gaps remaining in food security, access to healthy diets, and the reduction of environmental impacts.
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1558. Expanding Forest Fires: Latest Data Highlights Growing Forest Risks in a Warming World
The World Resources Institute (WRI), drawing on the latest data from researchers at the University of Maryland, reports that forest fires have become more widespread and destructive over the past two decades, while their share of global tree cover loss has also increased. According to data for 2001–2025, forest fires now burn more than twice as much tree cover each year as they did 20 years ago, and more than three times as much in the tropics.
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1557. Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN): A global goal to protect and restore land
This week, the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17) is being held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. As the international community discusses responses to desertification, land degradation and drought, renewed attention is being given to Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), an approach that aims to maintain the quantity and quality of land resources at a level sufficient to support the ecosystem services needed now and in the future.
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1556. July 2026 Sets a New July Record for Global Ocean Surface Temperatures as Heat and Drought Drive Wildfires in Western Europe
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reported that July 2026 was the joint-second warmest July globally, with an average surface air temperature of 16.90°C, 0.67°C above the 1991–2020 average and 1.47°C above the estimated pre-industrial baseline. The month also set a new July record for sea surface temperatures across the extra-polar oceans.
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1555. Global Food Price Trends in July 2026 (FAO Food Price Index)
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the FAO Food Price Index averaged 131.1 points in July 2026, up 0.7 points, or 0.6 percent, from the previous month. Increases in the price indices for cereals, sugar and vegetable oils more than offset declines in those for meat and dairy products. The index stood 1.3 points, or 1.0 percent, above its level a year earlier, but remained 29.1 points, or 18.2 percent, below the peak recorded in March 2022.
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1554. Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Livelihoods and Food Systems in Africa
UN News reports that biodiversity loss in Africa and other developing regions is already having serious impacts on people’s lives and livelihoods, including through declining agricultural productivity and shrinking coastal fishery resources. Meanwhile, the official website of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) introduces the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) as an international framework for addressing these challenges, explaining that it sets out four goals for achieving a “world living in harmony with nature” by 2050 and 23 targets to be achieved by 2030.
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1553. Food System Transformation and Climate Action Could Reduce Future Planetary Boundary Transgressions
A study published in The Lancet Planetary Health assessed how food systems could contribute to future transgressions of planetary boundaries at both global and local scales. The results suggest that transforming food systems—through dietary change, higher agricultural productivity, and halving food loss and waste—combined with climate change mitigation, could reduce multiple environmental pressures simultaneously.
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1552. Climate Change Is Rapidly Increasing Wildfire Risk in Southern Europe
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has warned that climate-related disasters are reaching “nightmare proportions.” Supporting this concern, a paper published in Scientific Reports finds that the number of days with extreme fire-weather conditions in Southern Europe has more than doubled over recent decades, increasing the risk of large-scale wildfires.