Asian governments are now forced to react quickly to combat the ill effects of climate change including scarcity of drinking water, increasing sea levels, and extreme weather.
Asia is home to 4.3 billion people, 60 percent of the world's population, and they are in line for tremendous challenges in the face of climate change. Experts predict that if left unmitigated, climate change will make Asia experience problems with social order, health, and food security.
Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University in Bangladesh, explained that Asia's rapidly booming economy and its growing population will give it a pivotal role in combatting climate change.
"It's where the population is, it's where the young population is, it's where the growth dynamism will occur in the next few decades," Huq said after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change discussed their 32-volume report, as quoted by the Associated Press .
The report discussed that in Myanmar and Bangladesh, climate change will affect coastal communities and they will experience rising sea levels, destroying their homes and livelihood. The warmer temperature will also kill the coral reefs, threatening the supply of fish, which is their main source of protein. On the other hand, Nepal will likely experience severe flooding due to overburdened dams that may collapse any minute.
Japan, although a wealthy nation, still faces the risks of flooding and the propagation of disease-carrying mosquitoes.
Huq explained that Asia may be one of the most affected regions of climate change; however, the recent shift into renewable energy resources has made a significant contribution in decreasing carbon emissions. Japan has met its target rates for emissions after they shut down their nuclear reactors in 2011. Similarly, China, one of the biggest contributors in emissions, has started using wind and solar power generating plants. India, the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases has also doubled its efforts to use solar power in 2013.
The success of mitigating the effects of climate change is dependent whether the nations will stop pointing fingers and blaming each other. Asian policymakers have realized that now is not the time for that and they have to act soon.
