Even Modest Green Action Can Prevent Water Shortage in Asia
According to a new study led by MIT researchers, an innovative approach to modelling the effects of climate change and economic growth in Asia has uncovered that even “modest” action can help prevent extreme water-shortage scenarios facing Asia by the year 2050.
Approximately 60 percent of the world’s population lives in Asia, often with inadequate access to water. Compared to the global average, Asians on average have less than half the amount of water available to them. The MIT team found that by simply combating climate change as set out in the
2015 Paris Agreement, there would be a reduction of 60 million people facing severe water problems.
The researchers examined the possibilities of water shortages in Asia by conducting detailed simulations of many plausible economic and climate pathways for Asia in the future.
They also evaluated the effects that economic development and climate change had on the water supply and demand. The researchers studied cases in which economic change continued while the climate remains unchanged, and vice versa, in order to identify which of these factors generated water shortages.