South-east Asia faces climate change disaster

Malaysian Insider: Southeast Asia will be hit particularly hard by climate change, causing the region’s agriculture-dependent economies to contract by as much as 6.7 per cent annually by the end of the century, according to a study released yesterday. The Asian Development Bank study focused on Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Singapore is included in parts of the study.

The four developing countries are especially vulnerable because they have large coastal populations facing rising sea levels, and rely heavily on rice and other agriculture products which could suffer from droughts as well as floods. “Climate change seriously threatens South-east Asia's families, food supplies and financial prosperity,” said Ms Ursula Schaefer-Preuss, the ADB’s vice-president for knowledge management and sustainable development.

…These countries would also likely suffer drops in rainfall, leading to worsening droughts and more forest fires, more destructive tropical storms as well as flooding from rising seas that could displace millions of people. The economic cost, according to the report, would add up to 6.7 per cent of gross domestic product, more than twice the global projected cost.

Already, climate change has led to extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, floods and tropical cyclones in recent decades in South-east Asia, which contributed 12 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions in 2000, the ADB noted. It said the global financial crisis was pushing other issues down the agenda in many countries, but warned that climate change would still have wide-ranging effects for the region….

Khlong Toei, Bangkok - aerial view, shot by Mattes, Wikimedia Commons