South Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate shocks. South Asia sits precariously on the front lines of the global climate crisis. As temperatures increase, the region that is experiencing a new climate normal is predicted to see hotter weather, longer monsoon seasons, and increased droughts. The region’s extreme vulnerability has long been apparent. South Asian countries have been affected by one or more climate-related disasters in the last two decades.
The region is living through a new climate normal in which intensifying heat waves, cyclones, droughts, and floods are testing the limits of government, businesses, and citizens’ ability to adapt. More than half of all South Asians were affected by one or more climate-related disasters in the last two decades, but the most affected countries are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
The changing climate could sharply diminish living conditions for up to 800 million people in a region that already has some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations. At the same time, South Asia is pioneering many climate-smart solutions, including innovative community approaches to coastal resilience, scaling up renewable energy, and regenerative forestry. Accelerating and scaling up these efforts is critical to building resilience to the rapidly warming climate in the region and reducing emissions.
The South Asian region is excessively wide open to climate change effects, including higher temperatures, sea-level rise, inconsistent rainfall, amplified occurrence and harshness of extreme weather incidents, increased overflow and glacial melting. It is anticipated to be the worst-impacted region by climate change and global warming because of the geophysical environment in addition to the socioeconomic and demographic backwardness of the population.
There are millions of people bearing the burden of these catastrophes due to their reliance on climate-sensitive sectors such as forestry, fishing and agriculture for their daily needs. Biodiversity, human health, food security, energy, water, agricultural output, and coastal arrangements will be jeopardised, resulting in increased migrations and, eventually, escalating pressures on major cities. This spring, record-breaking heat waves brought India, Pakistan and northern Bangladesh to a standstill. In August, unusually intense monsoon rainfalls, exacerbated by melting glaciers, caused a super flood that submerged one-third of Pakistan, displacing millions and destroying critical infrastructure like hospitals, schools and bridges.
We know that climate change is a serious risk multiplier that hinders sustainable and inclusive development across South Asia and will do so more in the future. Without comprehensive, scaled-up climate action, gains in human development and poverty reduction across South Asia are at risk, and macro-economic fragility will grow. For South Asia, whose per capita greenhouse gas emissions are well below the global average, climate action first and foremost means investing in climate resilience as an urgent priority. This requires strengthening the systemic resilience of rural landscapes, including food, freshwater, and forest systems, to boost adaptation to a changing climate, livelihoods, and food security.
As South Asia continues to urbanise rapidly, it requires building climate-resilient cities and infrastructure. And it demands a people-centric approach to strengthening community resilience through early warning systems and shock-responsive safety nets. It is not that South Asia can afford to ignore greenhouse gas emissions altogether.
But in prioritising climate action, countries in the region should look for synergies between adaptation, mitigation and development, such as relying on nature-based solutions for water resource management or building more efficient cities to reduce the need for cooling. It is urgent to increase domestic and international investment in resilience across the region’s roads, hydropower dams, coastal communities and agriculture, as well as its rapidly growing cities, which are full of informal settlements that are at the highest risk.
There are important gaps that need to be addressed. Accessing financing for climate resilience projects remains a challenge for many countries. Continuing high inflation, slow economic growth, and the ongoing fallout from the Covid pandemic have constrained the fiscal space of governments across South Asia. Unlocking private investment in climate resilience and adaptation has proven difficult.
A combination of measures is needed to fix this: regulation to incentivize private climate action and reduce climate risks on corporate and financial balance sheets; more concessional funding to complement insufficient revenue streams from investments in resilience; and new financial instruments that make use of markets to generate new, cost-effective solutions. One challenge in South Asia, about which much is already known, is the low revenue base of most governments.
This is a constraint not just for climate action but for development more generally. Greater domestic resource mobilisation must complement increased support from the international community to effectively leverage private sector finance. Also, investing in the well-being, education, and health of citizens can pay huge dividends in boosting the productivity, growth, and resilience of economies. Investments in human capital, increased availability of and access to productive jobs, and improving social protection systems can help communities better prepare for and respond to the increasing and inevitable climate shocks they will face. Timely, equitable development can reduce people’s vulnerability to climate change, potentially halving the number of people who will fall into poverty because of climate change by 2030. The role of local communities and the partnership with civil society are key here.
Bangladesh has become a global leader in disaster risk reduction. In Nepal, the World Bank’s Forests for Prosperity project works to increase community benefits from forests by including women and other socially excluded groups, thereby incentivizing sustainable forest management practices. Such solutions can be highly cost-effective. For cash-strapped governments, investing in efficient delivery mechanisms could be the cheapest form of climate action.
The secondary impacts of the catastrophic flooding in Pakistan and Bangladesh, such as diseases such as malaria, typhoid, and dengue fever, are taking hold while millions face food insecurity. With COP27 ongoing, we need everyone to play their part to deliver increased finance for resilience and to ensure we are on a more equitable, prosperous, and clean development path in South Asia and across the globe.
South Asian climate-related security risks call for governments to step up and for international communities to support the cause and save the region. Now is the time to better understand future climate anticipations and their implications for ongoing exposures. Despite efforts to integrate stakeholders and diverse institute structures, as well as numerous international level treaties, agreements, or megaprojects, the outcome is depressing. There is a lot more to be done.
Major powers and global policemen bear responsibility for compensating developing countries through development grants, project implementation, and infrastructure improvement. The Covid pandemic is a lesson and a window of opportunity for all to reform national and international politics according to the liberal philosophy of cooperation. In the context of climate change, optimism is essential because radical change is always possible.
Focusing on the environment as a referent object is way too necessary now for ensuring the overall security and stability of this region as well as the whole world. Globalization and transnational boundaries call for more cooperative relations, not only to promote trade or production but to fight mutually against every threat. Therefore, aside from states, the international community has to play its part in combating the contrary influences of climate variation. Individual-level awareness and efforts are significant as well. Making a layman aware, who is more vulnerable to climatic hazards, means a lot to the overall contribution of adaptation and mitigation on climate change in this region of South Asia.
This means incorporating disaster risk planning into the master plans of urban and local self-governments and helping make the health, water resources management, agriculture, and road sectors more resilient to calamities. Delivering climate action across South Asia will require the strengthening of the resilience of targeted systems combined with a robust financial system that can fund climate-smart transitions. That means helping our partners across the region green the financial sector, scale up public and private finance by making climate central to financial decisions, and translate strategies into real-time investment plans. Take action to discover how countries on the front lines of climate change across South Asia are paving the way for a more equitable, prosperous and cleaner future.