This project is implemented by Yayasan Kopernik and PT Kopernik on behalf of our partner who provided grant funding for this project.
This project uses climate attribution modelling to assess climate change's role in extreme wildfires and their health impacts on sensitive populations in Southeast Asia and Australia. Through participatory co-design, it engages policymakers, Indigenous communities, citizen scientists, and artists to create innovative communication tools.
Project Type
- Test Potential Solutions
THE PROBLEM
Climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity and duration of extreme wildfires and smoke haze pollution in Southeast Asia and Australia, exacerbating respiratory and cardiovascular illness, and contributing to thousands of premature deaths. Severe smoke haze from wildfires in Sumatra, Indonesia in 2015 resulted in around 100,000 excess deaths. In Australia, smoke from the 2019–20 Black Summer wildfires was associated with an estimated 417 deaths. While current impact estimates underscore the significant public health challenges posed by wildfires, they do not explicitly attribute the health impacts of wildfire smoke to climate change. Moreover, they rarely focus on sensitive population groups that are disproportionately affected by climate change.
THE SOLUTION
To address this challenge, Kopernik will participate in a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with the communities to identify practical adaptation strategies for the haze season, conduct community socialization sessions on building low-cost DIY air purifiers using locally sourced materials, deploy low-cost sensors in selected households to support citizen science, and test the effectiveness of the DIY air purifiers in improving indoor air quality particularly to protect vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, children, and older adults in targeted communities in Palembang, South Sumatra.
THE EXPECTED IMPACT
This project aims to use climate attribution modelling and storylines to assess the influence of climate change on the risk and characteristics of extreme wildfires and related smoke haze exposure, and on the health of Indigenous people, pregnant women and children in five heavily affected regions of Southeast Asia and Australia.
The project engages policymakers, Indigenous peoples and communities, citizen scientists and artists in the participatory co-design of innovative communication tools based on climate attribution science, health impact data, and the culture and lived experiences of communities suffering extreme or recurrent wildfires in Thailand, Laos, Indonesia and Australia.
This project is implemented by Yayasan Kopernik and PT Kopernik on behalf of our partner who provided grant funding for this project.
