MANILA, Philippines--Citing studies validated by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said Asian countries, including the Philippines, were among the most vulnerable to climate change.

Yap said NSCB Secretary General Romulo Virola had warned that climate change would become a major threat to the country?s development since vulnerable provinces were home to some of the poorest Filipinos.

The NSCB had studied the report by the Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia, which identified six Asian nations as the most vulnerable to climate change, with the Philippines as the only country where the range of vulnerability was placed throughout the entire nation.

The NSCB also looked into the study of Australian Weather and Climate Research and Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

This showed that low-lying areas including Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, India and the Philippines face major floods as polar ice caps might melt faster under the pressure of global warming.

The study predicted that a one-meter rise in the sea level, for example, is projected to affect 64 out of the Philippines? 81 provinces.

Higher sea levels would cover at least 703 of 1,610 towns and inundate almost 700 million square meters of land in the country.

The most vulnerable is Indonesia because of climate-related factors and the high density of its populated areas, the study showed.

Yap said such studies should prompt leaders in Southeast Asia to mount a joint effort to persuade affluent economies and global corporate giants to make good on their earlier commitment to set aside $100 billion for research and development by the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) to sustain food production through a new Green Revolution.

Yap earlier said that industrialized economies and big corporations, which have contributed the most to global warming and other woes that have triggered the global food crisis, should take the lead in bankrolling the research and development programs of major international agricultural research institutions such as the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.

He said the establishment of a food reserve remained an urgent concern.

Even though prices have retreated and food production are at their highest levels, other developments point to another possible round of consumer panic and even sharper price spikes in the not too distant future, Yap said.