Report: Climate change could reverse decades of economic, social progress in Asia

The Jakarta Post

BANGKOK (AP): Worsening weather and higher sea levelscaused by climate change could reverse decades of social and economic progress across Asia and the Pacific, according to a report released Monday by a coalition of environmental and humanitarian groups.

The report, "Up In Smoke? Asia and the Pacific," warns that communities across the region are already feeling the effects of climate change and face a dire future unless the international community acts at next month's climate change meetings in Bali, Indonesia, to control rising greenhouse gases.

"Before the Bali meeting, we must make our voices heard and demand international leaders take urgent and ambitious action while placing climate change at the heart of their plans," Saleem Huq, head of climate change for the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development, said in a statement.

"Without this, Asia's vulnerable will continue to suffer, as will communities worldwide who are contributing least to climate change but continuing to suffer the most," he said.

The report by 35 private organizations, including the humanitarian group Oxfam and environmental group Greenpeace, comes two days after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that global warming is "unequivocal" and carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere commits the world to an eventual rise in sea levels of up to 1.40 meters.

The IPCC report found that warming temperatures could result in 75 million to 250 million people in Africa suffering water shortages by 2020 and residents of Asia's large cities facing a greater risk of river and coastal flooding.

Earlier in the year, the IPCC reported that 130 million people in Asia could suffer severe food and water shortages by 2050 unless international action is urgently taken.

The Up In Smoke report paints a portrait of communities already struggling to adapt to changing weather patterns. Droughts are on the rise in China and India while Bangladesh has been hit by worsening floods and natural disasters, including Tropical CycloneSidr which killed more than 1,800 people Thursday.

Pacific island villages have been forced to relocate because of rising sea levels while melting glaciers have contributed to a decline in runoff to countries that depend on them for drinking water and irrigation.

The report calls for richer countries to commit to make mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases and do more to provide green technologies to the developing world.

It also calls for more financial resources to help communities cope with global warming. Disaster preparedness should also be better funded and organized, the report said.

"The ongoing erratic weather conditions experienced the world over mean a daily struggle for the millions of poor people who rely on the land and sea for their survival," Oxfam International's Bert Maerten said in a statement. "Oxfam wants to see governments taking both mitigation and adaptation efforts seriously now and in the future."