APAC climate change losses top $41B in 2024

CLIMATE change cost the Asia-Pacific region more than $41 billion in losses to the environment, economic growth and human development last year.

This — according to the latest report released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and United Nations Development Program — has reduced the ability of the region to meet its Sustainable Development Goals.

“The Asia and Pacific region has made steady progress in increasing food security, reducing the prevalence of malnutrition and making improvements in health and well-being,” Woochong Um, ADB managing director general, said.

“However, further gains are being hampered by multiple crises, including the increasing effects of climate change, the lingering impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis,” he added.

Last year, some 146 natural hazards were reported, which were mostly floods and storms. These affected 47 million people in the region with economic losses recording more than $41 billion.

The Manila-based lender said that between 2000 and 2023, about 41 percent of the region were hit by flood disasters, killing 88,816 people and affecting 1.6 billion.

During the period, the economic losses in the region stood at $452 billion. Moreover, losses from rapid onset climate hazards, such as floods and cyclones, are especially severe in the Pacific.

Between 2015 and 2020, ADB reported that small island developing states in the subregion suffered the highest relative economic losses, with an average loss of nearly 9.0 percent of gross domestic product.

It noted that more frequent and severe climate-related hazards will result in reduced agricultural and labor productivity, loss of livelihoods and human displacement.

“These strain socioeconomic and environmental systems, and hinder efforts to promote food security and alleviate poverty, especially for poorer countries and vulnerable communities,” ADB said.

It added that climate change is already severely impacting global food systems, expecting it to worsen unless mitigation and adaptation actions are stepped up significantly.

In terms of coping capacity and climate-related shock exposure, ADB revealed that developed countries are less exposed than least developed and developing countries.

Countries with high exposure, it emphasized, have a greater need to adapt since they have a lower coping mechanism due to a lack of financing, infrastructure and institutional capacity.

“Current global and regional policies do not adequately support the integration of climate priorities with efforts to address poverty and hunger,” ADB said.

“There is an urgent need to develop stronger social protection systems for vulnerable people to help tackle the underlying causes of poverty and food insecurity, and to strengthen their adaptive capacity to the impacts of climate change,” it added.