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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello,

This week, an extreme earthquake in Taiwan and a rare storm in China have killed around 16 people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses.

Taiwan faced its strongest earthquake in at least 25 years on Wednesday. The quake killed nine people and injured more than 1,000, with hundreds more still trapped.

Some buildings tilted at precarious angles in the mountainous, sparsely populated county of Hualien, near the epicenter of the 7.2 magnitude quake, which struck just offshore at about 8 a. m. (0000 GMT) and triggered massive landslides.

A helicopter plucked six people stranded in a mining area to safety on Thursday, while hundreds of aftershocks rocking the eastern region near its epicenter drove scores more to seek shelter outdoors.

Authorities said that the number of injured people had risen to 1,067, while most of the roughly 50 hotel workers marooned on a highway as they headed to a resort in a national park were located.

Also on my radar today:

• Renewables growth still lags climate targets, think tank says
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• China solar industry faces shakeout, but rock-bottom prices to persist

Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te inspects the damage following the earthquake, in Hualien, Taiwan. Taiwan Presidential Office/Handout image via REUTERS

But 660 people were still trapped, most of them in hotels in the park, after the road was cut off, the fire department said, as the discovery of a dead body on a hiking trail near the entrance to a gorge took the total deaths to ten.

The agriculture ministry urged people to keep away from the mountains because of the risk of falling rocks and the formation of “barrier lakes” as water pools behind unstable debris.

Thursday was the start of a long-weekend holiday for the tomb-sweeping festival, when families traditionally return home to attend ancestral graves. The region is also a major draw for tourists with its rugged mountains, hot spring resorts and tranquil farms.

Linda Chen, 48, said her apartment in downtown Hualien city had been so badly damaged in an earlier earthquake in 2018 that she had to move house. But her new apartment block was damaged too in the latest earthquake.

“We worry the house could collapse anytime. We thought we had already experienced it once in Hualien and it would not hit us again, because God has to be fair,” she said. “We are frightened. We are so nervous.”

The quake hit at a depth of 15.5 km (9.6 miles), just as people were headed for work and school, setting off a tsunami warning for southern Japan and the Philippines that was later lifted.

Taiwan is no stranger to earthquakes, being located near the junction of two tectonic plates, and many are concentrated along the picturesque, mainly rural and sparsely populated east coast.

Since the 2018 earthquake of magnitude 6.4, in which seven people died, local official Chang Tung-yao said authorities have strengthened coordination with government units and non-governmental organizations for disaster response and relief.

Meanwhile, rare storms with typhoon-like winds have killed at least seven people in China’s southern Jiangxi province since the weekend.

Three of them were blown out of their high-rise apartments in their sleep.

The extreme weather, which began on March 31, has engulfed nine cities including Nanchang and Jiujiang, with 93,000 people in 54 counties affected, said the Jiangxi provincial emergency flood control headquarters.

Over the weekend, freak storms led to gusts that ripped door-size windows off frames in two apartments in a high-rise building in Nanchang, the provincial capital. Three people were pulled from their beds through the holes, plunging to their deaths, according to local media reports.

Officials on Wednesday said seven people had died so far across the province and 552 had to be evacuated. They also said 2,751 houses were damaged.

Australian World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid worker Lalzawmi (Zomi) Frankcom, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. World Central Kitchen/Handout via REUTERS

Paul Marushka, CEO and president of risk management software firm Sphera, shares his thoughts on the impact of extreme weather events on supply chains:

“Our Supply Chain Risk Report shows that natural hazard events hit supply chains hard in 2023 with warnings for tornadoes climbing by 45%, hailstorm warnings increasing by 26% and tropical cyclone warnings going up by 6%.

“Two-thirds of the global economy is affected directly or indirectly by weather conditions with industries such as agriculture, energy and transportation particularly affected.

“A solution that provides 24/7 monitoring and advanced notifications of weather risks can help companies prepare their supply chains and get ahead of an impending disruption — and help minimize the financial impact on the business.” 

Wider Image: It is minus 6 degrees Celsius (21 degrees Fahrenheit) in Arctic Norway and some 30 Indigenous Sami herders have gathered 1,500 reindeer in a corral, sorting who owns which animal after the herds mixed while grazing up on the Finnmark plateau.

It is also an opportunity to discuss their big worry: a planned 54-km (34-mile) power line to supply Western Europe’s largest liquefied natural gas plant.

The line will be built on pastures the herders use in summer, in coastal areas where they say towns, cabins, roads, existing power lines and other infrastructure have already encroached on the land they use. Click here for the full special report.

Waaddao Chumaporn and Siritata Ninlapruek, react after the passing of the marriage equality bill in its first reading by the Senate, in Bangkok, Thailand. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa

Today’s spotlight shines a light on LGBT rights gains in Thailand amid equality rollbacks in other nations like Uganda, where the African nation refused to annul or suspend an anti-LGBTQ law that includes the death penalty for certain same-sex acts this week.

Thailand’s LGBT activists celebrated another victory on Tuesday after a marriage equality bill overwhelmingly passed a first reading in the upper house, a key step bringing the country closer to becoming Asia’s third territory to legalize same-sex unions.

“It’s like we’ve been embraced and accepted by the people in the entire country,” said Waaddao Chumaporn, 40, an LGBT activist and spokesperson for the parliamentary committee for the bill, calling it the “best gift of our lives”.

The bill sailed through the Senate’s first reading in a 147-4 vote, prior to second and third readings due in July. If approved, it will be sent to the royal palace for the king’s assent before it becomes law within 120 days. Other activists on the committee pumped their fists and celebrated with each other after the vote.

Today’s Sustainable Switch was edited by Mark Potter

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