‘Japan, China, B’desh, India most vulnerable to rising sea levels’

BANGKOK: Describing climate change as the biggest threat to sustainability, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has voiced deep concern over the rising level of oceans and said the most vulnerable areas are in Japan, China, Bangladesh and India.

Guterres, speaking to reporters in Bangkok where he is attending the ASEAN Summit, said the biggest threat to sustainability today in the world is climate change. He cited a recent report by a research centre that said the level of the oceans is rising much faster than what was forecasted because of climate change.

The UN Chief stressed that unless nations are able to reverse this trend, because climate change for the moment is running faster than actions being taken by governments, the research forecasted that 300 million people will be flooded by sea water in the world by 2050.

“Dramatically, the most vulnerable areas are exactly in

Southeast Asia, in Japan, China, Bangladesh and India,” he said adding that Thailand risks to have 10% of its population in flooded areas by the sea.

The recent study by non-profit organisation Climate Central was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Guterres emphasised that people can discuss the accuracy of these figures, but it is clear that climate change is “running faster than what we are and is the biggest threat to the planet at the present moment, the defining issue of our time”.