PH most vulnerable to impact of global warming – WB report

THE Philippines is one of the countries most vulnerable to the impact of rising sea level because of global warming, according to a new scientific report commissioned by the World Bank, which was released on Monday.

Titled Turn Down the Heat, the report said that at the end of the century, the world’s temperature could rise by four degree Celcius, if the global community fails to act on climate change, triggering a cascade of cataclysmic changes that include extreme heat- waves, declining global food stocks and a sea- level rise affecting hundreds of millions of people.

It said that coastal cities would be inundated, increasing risks for food production that may lead to higher under and malnutrition rates; dry regions would become dryer and wet regions wetter. Tropical cyclones would be more intense and there would be irreversible loss of biodiversity, including coral reef systems.

“Sea- level rise impacts are projected to be

asymmetrical even within regions and countries,” the report said.

Because of high population densities and often inadequate urban planning, coastal cities in developing regions are particularly vulnerable to sealevel rise in concert with other impacts of climate change.

All regions of the world would suffer, some more than others, but the poor will suffer the most, the bank said.

“Coastal and urban migration, with often associated unplanned urban sprawl, still exacerbates risks in the future,” it added.

“Highly vulnerable cities are to be found in Mozambique, Madagascar, Mexico, Venezuela, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam,” the report said.

“A four degree warmer world can, and must be, avoided. We need to hold warming below two degrees,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim.

“Climate change is one of the single biggest challenges facing development, and we need to assume the moral responsibility to take action on behalf of future generations, especially the poorest,” he added.

However, the report said that limiting warming to two degree Celsius would likely reduce sealevel rise by about 20 centimeter by 2100 compared to a four degree Celsius world.

It said that sea- level rise would likely be limited to below two meters only if warming were kept to well below 1.5 degree Celsius.

“The forest in the Indochina peninsula will be at risk of dieback. At 4 degree Celsius, the area of concern grows to include central Sumatra, Sulawesi, India and the Philippines, where up to 30 percent of the total humid tropical forest niche could be threatened by forest retreat,” it added.