NEW DELHI :
CLIMATE change under a highend emissions scenario could
lead to a 16.9 per cent loss in
GDP by 2070 across the Asia
and Pacific region, with India
projected to suffer a 24.7 per
cent GDP loss, according to a
new report.
Rising sea levels and decreasing labour productivity would
drive the most significant losses, with lower-income and fragile economies being hit the
hardest, it said. The new
research, presented in the inaugural issue of ADB's “AsiaPacific Climate Report”, details
a series of damaging impacts
threatening the region.
It says that if the climate crisis continues to accelerate, up
to 300 million people in the
region could be at risk from
coastal inundation, and trillions of dollars' worth of coastal
assets could face annual damage by 2070.
Climate change has supercharged the devastation from
tropical storms, heat waves,
and floods in the region, contributing to unprecedented
economic challenges and
human suffering,” said ADB
President Masatsugu Asakawa.
Urgent, well-coordinated climate action addressing these
impacts is necessary before it
is too late, he said.
This climate report provides
insights into financing urgent
adaptation needs and offers
promising policy recommendations to governments in our
developing member countries
on how to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions at the lowest cost,
he added. “By 2070, climate
change under a high-end emissions scenario could cause a
total loss of 16.9 per cent of GDP
across the Asia and Pacific
region. Most of the region
would face more than 20 percent loss.
“Among the assessed countries and subregions, these losses are concentrated in
Bangladesh (30.5 percent),Viet
Nam (per cent), Indonesia (per
cent), India (24.7 percent), ‘the
rest of Southeast Asia’ (23.4 per
cent), higher-income
Southeast Asia (22 per cent),
Pakistan (21.1 per cent), the
Pacific (18.6 per cent), and the
Philippines (18.1 per cent),”
the report said.