Asian Development Bank urges leaders to act against climate change

Monsters & Critics: Asian leaders have to act against climate change or risk pushing millions more people into poverty, a senior official from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Tuesday. 'If we do not fully grasp the inter-related issues of water, food and climate change and address them head-on, we may lose the hard-won gains in our fight against poverty,' Ursula Schaefer-Preuss, vice president for sustainable development, said at the ADB's annual meeting in Hanoi.

Panelists said pressures on water and food supplies had to be eased because current high food prices are already worsening poverty in Asia. In a report published last week, the bank estimated a sustained 10-per-cent rise in domestic food prices in developing Asia could push a further 64 million people into extreme poverty.

Chronic water shortages are also a pressing issue, Schaefer-Preuss said. By 2030, demand for water in Asia is anticipated to exceed supply by 40 per cent. Since nearly 80 per cent of the region's water is used in agriculture production, shortages of water can also contribute to shortages of food.

Panelists, including representatives from the Vietnamese government, the Philippines, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Natural Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility in Australia, urged leaders to scale up efforts to 'climate proof' infrastructure, manage disaster risks such as floods and droughts and adopt regional security strategies….

From 1887, a lithograph of "Poor Richard illustrated, lessons for the young and old on industry, temperance, frugality &c. by Benjamin Franklin" (Print showing a small portrait of Benjamin Franklin, surrounded by 24 vignettes illustrating maxims taken from his writings.)