East Asian countries paying price of climate change, ADB says

Rising temperatures in China, Japan, Mongolia and South Korea would spur more flooding and tropical storms in coastal areas and make northern agricultural regions more prone to drought, the ADB said in its "Economics of Climate Change in East Asia" report.

The study underscores the risks of inaction on climate change faced by a region that was responsible for 30 per cent of the world's carbon emissions in 2010.

China's model of economic growth at all costs has made it the world's biggest carbon emitter and has blanketed cities in smog that can surpass World Health Organisation recommendations by almost 40 times.

"East Asia needs to shift towards a model of economic growth focused on low carbon emissions and more efficient use of resources," the ADB said in the report.

In China, "measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases should lead to significant improvements in local air quality, thus reducing the damage to the health of urban populations", it said.

Projections suggest that regional mean temperatures in 2090 will be 3.8 to 5.2 degrees Celsius higher than the 1961-90 average, according to the report.

The region was already vulnerable to once-every-hundred-years floods that could affect 12 million people in 23 cities, threatening US$864 billion in assets, the report said.

The ADB said that under a mid-range scenario, the cost of adapting infrastructure to climate change would cost the region US$22.9 billion a year in 2005 dollars.

Coastal protection would cost US$4.2 billion and adapting agriculture would cost US$9.5 billion.

Climate-related natural disasters since 1970 have already cost US$259 billion to China, US$64 billion to Japan, US$15 billion to South Korea and US$2 billion to Mongolia.

That amounts to less than 0.2 per cent of gross domestic product over the period.

The ADB said its study area did not include Hong Kong or Macau. Maps in the report also did not include data for Taiwan.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as East Asia 'pays price for climate change'

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