Global warming threatens economic chaos in SE Asia-ADB

MANILA (Reuters) – Southeast Asia is one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to climate change and could face conflict over failing rice yields, lack of water and high economic costs, a major Asian Development Bank report shows.

The region’s economies could lose as much as 6.7 percent of combined gross domestic product yearly by 2100, more than twice the global average loss, according to the ADB’s report on the economics of climate change in Southeast Asia.

“By the end of this century, the economy-wide cost each year on average could reach 2.2 percent of GDP, if only market impact is considered…(to) 6.7 percent of GDP when catastrophic risks are also taken into account,” the British-government funded report said.

This compared with an estimated global loss of just under 1 percent of GDP in market impact terms, the Manila-based ADB said.

The global economic downturn could delay funding for climate change mitigation measures by regional governments.

Reuters