Boiling Point
| Author | Amit Prakash |
| Pages | 22-26 |
22 FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT | September 2018
Boiling
Point
One of the most vulnerable regions to climate change is witnessing
the world’s biggest jump in greenhouse gas emissions
Amit Prakash
T
he Blue Dragon, a small riverfront eatery
in Hoi An, Vietnam, serves morsels of
local trivia to tourist s along with $2
plates of crisp spring rolls and succu lent noodles.
On its damp-stained wa lls, the Blue Dragon’s
owner, Nam, marks the level of annual floods
that submerge this popular UNESCO World
Heritage town renowned for its bright-yellow-
painted buildings.
Last November, days before presidents and
prime ministers arrived i n nearby Da Nang for a
meeting of the Asia Pacific E conomic Cooperation
forum, the water level at the Blue Dragon rose
to 1.6 meters (5.25 feet) when typhoon-driven
rains lashed the city. Patrons scurried to safet y
as pots and pans floated by.
“Every time we get big rains or ty phoons, it
floods and every thing shuts down for three to
four days,” says Nam, 65, who goes by one name.
“Last year people had to esc ape in boats because
the water was too high.”
Typhoons and floods are becoming more intense
and frequent as Vietnam and t he rest of Southeast
Asia bear the bru nt of climate change. Long
coastlines a nd heavily populated low-lying areas
make the region of more than 64 0 million people
one of the world’s most vulnerable to weather
extremes and rising se a levels associated with global
warming. Governments are u nder pressure to act
quickly or risk giving up improvements in livi ng
standards ach ieved through decades of expor t-
driven growth.
Southeast Asia faces a dual challenge. It not only
must adapt to climate change caused largely by
greenhouse gases emitted over decades by advanced
economies—and more recently by developing
economies such as China and India—it also must
alter development strategies that are increasingly
contributing to global warming. e region’s
growing reliance on coal and oil, along with defor-
estation, are undermining national pledges to curb
emissions and embrace cleaner energy sources.
Economic impact
Average temperatures in Southeast A sia have risen
every decade since 1960. Vietnam, Myanmar, the
Philippines, and aila nd are among 10 countries
in the world most affected by climate c hange
in the past 20 years, a ccording to the Global
Climate Risk Index c ompiled by Germanwatch,
an environmental group. e World Bank counts
Vietnam among five countries most li kely to be
affected by global wa rming in the future.
e economic impact could be devast ating.
e Asian Development Bank (A DB) estimates
Southeast Asia could su ffer bigger losses than
most regions in the world. Unchecked, climate
change could shave 11 percent off the region’s
GDP by the end of the century as it take s a toll
on key sectors such as agric ulture, tourism, and
fishing— along with human health a nd labor
productivity—the A DB estimated in a 2015
report. at’s far more than its 2009 est imate
of a 6.7 percent reduction.
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