Climate change to cut deep among Asia, Pacific economies in coming years

FILE PHOTO: This picture taken on December 13, 2022, shows a submerged tomb in a village graveyard, now underwater due to the effects of climate change, in the coastal town of Togoru, some 35 kilometers from Fiji’s capital city Suva. – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced a global climate “SOS” at a Pacific islands summit on August 27, 2024, unveiling research that shows the region’s seas rising much more swiftly than global averages. (Photo by Saeed KHAN / Agence France-Presse)

Climate change could reduce by nearly a fifth the overall economic output in developing Asia, which includes the Philippines, as well as in the Pacific by 2070.

This highlights the need for continuous reassessment of the effects and adaptation measures by policy leaders in the region.

The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) inaugural publication entitled “Asia Pacific Climate Report 2024” specifically projects a 17 percent reduction on both region’s gross domestic product (GDP) under a high-emission scenario.

“Climate change has supercharged the devastation from tropical storms, heat waves, and floods in the region, contributing to unprecedented economic challenges and human suffering,” ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa said in a statement.

“Urgent, well-coordinated climate action that addresses these impacts is needed before it is too late,” he added.

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The report took into consideration several factors including sea level rise, river-based flooding, labor productivity, energy demand, agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. Losses are expected to become particularly high in vulnerable countries and regions, such as Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Pacific.

In the ADB’s grouping, the Pacific includes the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

The impact is also expected to more than double to 41 percent by 2100, according to the same report. The report also found that regional public sentiment supports climate action, with the ADB citing that 91 percent of respondents across 14 regional economies view global warming as a serious problem, with many clamoring for “more ambitious” government action.

With that, the ADB said that adaptation responses need to be accelerated to address growing climate risks.

According to the same report, the annual investment needed for regional countries to adapt to global warming is between $102 billion and $431 billion.

These figures far exceed the $34 billion of tracked adaptation finance in the region in 2021 to 2022, highlighting the huge divide in what is being invested now versus the necessary capitalization to address climate change.