FILE - In this May 31, 2009 file photo, water flows back as villagers dig earth to rebuild an embankment at Protap Nagar in Shatkhira, Bangladesh. Experts say Asia and the South Pacific, home to 4.3 billion people or 60 percent of all humankind, faces rising risks from climate change that threaten food security, public health and social order, in a report given on March 31, 2014 by a United Nations scientific panel. (AP Photo)
‘Just as colonialism determined much of Asia’s past, climate change will determine the region’s future’
YOKOHAMA, April 1 (AP): Extreme weather, rising seas and worsening scarcity of drinking water are forcing many Asian governments to confront the changes being wrought by a warming planet. Millions in the region have already been displaced by floods and droughts thought related to global warming, a United Nations scientific panel said in a report meant to guide policymakers and form the foundation for a new climate treaty due next year.
YOKOHAMA, April 1 (AP): Extreme weather, rising seas and worsening scarcity of drinking water are forcing many Asian governments to confront the changes being wrought by a warming planet. Millions in the region have already been displaced by floods and droughts thought related to global warming, a United Nations scientific panel said in a report meant to guide policymakers and form the foundation for a new climate treaty due next year.
Scientists who back the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say there is overwhelming evidence that carbon emissions from industrialization and energy-intensive modern lifestyles have increased the world’s average temperature over the past century. Failed global efforts to significantly reduce emissions mean that nations are now focusing efforts on adapting to a hotter earth.
Just as colonialism determined much of Asia’s past, climate change will determine the region’s future. Adapting to profound disruptions from climate change will determine the region’s future, said Rajendra Kuma Pachauri, a co-chairman of the climate panel.
Asia’s growing economic importance and rapidly urbanizing populations will give it a pivotal role in humanity’s handling of climate change, said Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University in Bangladesh.
In Myanmar and Bangladesh, coastal farmlands are tainted by sea water from storm surges and rising sea levels, making soil too saline in key rice producing regions.
In Nepal, fast melting Himalayan glaciers are triggering floods as overburdened dams collapse.
Even in wealthy, industrialized Japan, changing climate is expected to double the risks from floods and deaths due to heat and expand the areas affected by disease-carrying mosquitoes.
Progress is mixed, and it does not always depend on the wealth of the societies involved. Experts at the climate talks praised Bangladesh, one of Asia’s poorest nations, for its efforts to reduce flooding risks by capturing silt to raise ground levels in its low-lying coastal areas and for building sturdy, multi-storied storm shelters that are credited with saving many lives from surging sea waters during cyclones.
India has begun to increase use of renewable energy, doubling its solar generation capacity in 2013 and aiming to generate 15 percent of its power through renewable energy by 2020. China has swiftly increased its wind and solar power generation, retrofitting older power plants with emissions controls and rapidly expanding its use of nuclear power.
Regardless of who is to blame for the legacy of carbon emissions in the industrial world, in Asia policymakers understand that carrying on with business as usual is just too risky. “I think they’re on the verge of realizing that’s not in their best interest,” said Huq.
