UN panel sounds climate change warnings for Asia

New Delhi: Most of Asia will face extreme stress on drinking water resources as a result of changing climate that will also impact food grain production by 2050, the Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC), a United Nations body said in a report launched on Monday.

The report titled Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability details the impact climate change has had to date, future risks, and the opportunities for effective action to reduce these risks.

The report says that the world is not well-prepared to deal with the risks that climate change will present. Though there are opportunities to manage these risks, the task will be made difficult by the high levels of that the world will experience.

Chris Field, co-chair of the IPCC working group that prepared the report, said that although countries were starting to take adaptation measures to reduce the risks from changing climate, they showed a stronger focus on reacting to past events than on preparing for the future.

“Climate-change adaptation is not an exotic agenda that has never been tried. Governments, firms and communities around the world are building experience with adaptation,” Field said in a press statement. “This experience forms a starting point for bolder, more ambitious adaptations that will be important as climate and society continue to change.”

“In many regions, changing precipitation or melting snow and ice are altering hydrological systems, affecting water resources in terms of quantity and quality. Glaciers continue to shrink almost worldwide due to climate change,” the report says, adding that this has prompted many species to shift their geographic ranges and migration patterns.

Many studies, which have been analysed by the panel, confirm that the impact of climate change on food crops has been more negative than positive.

Interlinking health impacts of climate change, the report says that local changes in temperature and rainfall have altered the distribution of some water-borne illnesses and disease vectors. “Until mid-century, projected climate change will impact human health mainly by exacerbating health problems that already exist,” it adds.

In terms of adaptability to climate change, the report says that governments at various levels are starting to develop adaptation plans and policies to integrate climate-change considerations into broader development plans. “In Asia, adaptation is being facilitated in some areas through mainstreaming climate adaptation action into subnational development planning, early warning systems, integrated water resources management, agroforestry, and coastal reforestation of mangroves,” the report says.

Talking about key risks in specific sectors, the report says that there is a risk of food insecurity and the breakdown of food systems linked to , drought, flooding, and precipitation variability and extremes, particularly for poorer people. It also says that there is risk of loss of rural livelihoods and income due to insufficient access to drinking and irrigation water and reduced agricultural productivity, particularly for farmers and pastoralists with minimal capital in semi-arid regions.

“The report concludes that people, societies, and ecosystems are vulnerable around the world, but with different vulnerability in different places. Climate change often interacts with other stresses to increase risk,” Field said.

The report says that risks related to availability of freshwater will increase significantly with increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. “Climate change over the 21st century is projected to reduce renewable surface water and groundwater resources significantly in most dry subtropical regions.”

The report says that production of major crops, including wheat, rice and maize, which are grown in tropical and temperate regions, will be negatively impacted if no adaptation measures are taken.

It adds that climate change over the century is projected to increase displacement of people.

Andrew Steer, president and CEO of World Resources Institute, a US thinktank, said that climate change is not some distant threat—it’s happening now and being felt everywhere. “The warning signals went off long ago, and we are now suffering the consequences of our inaction,” he said.

“Around the globe, we’re seeing how climate change is driving increased water risks, massive wildfires, and rising seas. Unless we change direction, climate change will significantly reduce water resources, especially in subtropical regions. It will exacerbate health problems, including through heat waves and disease. It will destroy forests that are important for economic activity, biodiversity, and carbon storage. And it will decimate crops and interrupt food supplies necessary to feed the world’s growing population,” he said in an emailed statement.

The IPCC report has been produced by 309 authors and editors drawn from 70 countries.

This is the fifth assessment report of the panel, which has three working groups. The report of Working Group I was published in September last year. This is the report of Working Group II. The Working Group III will come out with its report next month.

Working Group I assesses the physical and scientific aspects of the climate system and climate change. Working Group II assesses the vulnerability of socio-economic and natural systems to climate change, negative and positive consequences of climate change, and options for adapting to it.

Working Group III assesses options for mitigating climate change through limiting or preventing emissions of harmful greenhouse gases and enhancing activities that remove them from the atmosphere.

 

ONIKA JAISWAL

PGDM 1ST YEAR 

2013-15