Asia faces climate-induced migration crisis: ADB
Asia must prepare for millions of people to flee their homes to safe
havens within countries and across borders as weather patterns become
more extreme, the Asian Development Bank warns.
Asia could face mass migration in future due to climate change
says a recent report published by Asian Development Bank.
Reuters Photo |
A draft of an ADB report cautioned that failure to make preparations
now for vast movements of people could lead to 'humanitarian crises' in
the coming decades.
Governments are currently focused on mitigating climate change blamed
for the weather changes, but the report said they should start laying
down policies and mechanisms to deal with the projected population
shifts.
"What is clear is that Asia and the Pacific will be amongst the
global regions most affected by the impacts of climate change," said the
report entitled "Climate Change and Migration in Asia and the Pacific".
"Such impacts include significant temperature increases, changing
rainfall patterns, greater monsoon variability, sea-level rise, floods
and more intense tropical cyclones," it said.
The report, expected to be released in the next few weeks, comes as
flooding overwhelms parts of Asia-Pacific, most recently in Australia,
where a powerful cyclone worsened the impact of weeks of record
inundations.
"Asia and the Pacific are particularly vulnerable because of high
degree of exposure to environmental risks and high population density.
As a result, it could experience population displacements of
unprecedented scale in the next decades," said the report, primarily
targeted at regional policymakers.
Research carried out for the United Nations showed that 2010 was one
of the worst years on record for natural disasters.
Asians accounted for 89 percent of the 207 million people affected by
disasters globally last year, according to the Belgium-based Centre for
Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED).
Summer floods and landslides in China caused an estimated $18 billion
in damage, while floods in Pakistan cost $9.5 billion, CRED`s annual
study showed. Not to mention the catastrophic human cost.
"Governments are not prepared and that is why ADB is conducting this
project," Manila-based lending institution's poverty reduction, gender
and social development division Director Bart Edes said.
"There is no international cooperation mechanism established to
manage climate-induced migration. Protection and assistance schemes to
help manage that flow is opaque, poorly coordinated and scattered," he
said.
"Policymakers need to take action now," he stressed, noting that
negotiating treaties and efforts to raise funds takes time.
Last year's natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific, including millions
of people displaced in Sri Lanka and the Philippines, "give us a flavour
of what to expect in the future", said Edes.
"Migration in general is not being properly addressed and the
situation is going be made worse," added Edes, referring to the
additional impact of climate change on migration patterns, fuelled by
economic needs and armed conflicts.
"Now we have another driver of migration." The draft ADB report said
the people forced to leave due to the extreme weather changes "have come
to incarnate the human face of climate change" and while many of them
would return home, many would be displaced permanently.
Those expected to suffer the most would be the poor as they lacked
the means to easily pack up and leave for safe havens, the report said.
"The issue of climate-induced migration will grow in magnitude and
will take different forms," the report added, urging national
Governments and the global community to "urgently address this issue in
a proactive manner".
"Failure to do so could result in humanitarian crises with great
social and economic costs," it warned.
AFP |