A green path out of the global crisis

Hundreds of islands in Indonesia and the Philippines, large swaths of Vietnam's Mekong Delta, and great portions of Thailand and Singapore's sovereign territory are all under imminent threat. Why, then, the deafening silence? Why no call for urgent action? Perhaps it is because the foe is not a sovereign state, but climate change.

With the world confronting the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, it is understandable that countries are fixated on short-term measures to stabilize their economies. A new report by the Asian Development Bank - The Economics of Climate Change in Southeast Asia: A Regional Review - explains that countries do not face an "either-or choice" between addressing the financial crisis and climate change. Failure to address either threat will have catastrophic consequences.

In the coming decades, climate change will lead to decreasing rainfall in many parts of Southeast Asia, and millions will suffer from water shortage. Rice production from the region, the world's rice bowl, will appreciably decline, threatening food security. Vast tracts of high-quality forests will give way to tropical savannah and scrub land. Floods, cyclones, droughts and other extreme weather events will become more common. Health threats will also rise, with deaths from cardiovascular, respiratory diseases, malaria, and dengue increasing - all because of climate change. As is the case with most disasters, it is the poorest who will suffer the most.