Millions of people around the world are likely to be pushed back into poverty as climate change is undermining economic development in poor countries, warns the World Bank.
In its report, “Turn Down The Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts, and the Case for Resilience” released on Wednesday has predicted major droughts, floods, heat waves, sea-level rises and fiercer storms in the coming days.
In South Asia, shifting rain patterns will leave some areas underwater and others without enough water for power generation, irrigation or drinking, the report said.
The report projects country’s two largest coastal cities, Kolkata and Mumbai, as “potential impact hotspots” threatened by “extreme river floods, more intense tropical cyclones, rising sea levels and very high temperatures.”
Jim Yong Kim, President of World Bank, has warned that climate change should not be seen as a future problem that could be put off: “The scientists tell us that if the world warms by 2oC — warming which may be reached in 20 to 30 years — that will cause widespread food shortages, unprecedented heat waves, and more intense cyclones.”
The experts have linked the flood fury in Uttarakhand and parts of Northern India as cases in point. The report states that warming of at least 2oC (36F) — regarded by scientists as a limit of safety beyond which changes to the climate are likely to become catastrophic and irreversible — is all but inevitable at current levels.
Many parts of the world are already experiencing severe challenges as a result of climate change, and this will intensify as temperatures rise.Pointing to the scenario in Indian sub continent, the report said that loss of snow melt from Himalayas will reduce the flow of water into the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra basins.
“Together, they threaten to leave hundreds of millions of people without enough water, food, or access to reliable energy,” the experts predicted. With South Asia close to the equator, sub-continent would see much higher rises in sea levels than higher latitudes, with the Maldives confronting biggest increase between 100 to 115 cm. Pakistan would suffer the most extreme increase in heat.
As a result, events such as devastating floods in Pakistan in 2010, which affected 20 million people, could become more common while changes to the monsoon could bring severe hardship to Indian farmers.
The region would also experience loss of coral reefs, due to the rising ocean acidity that would deplete fishstocks. This would leave coastal communities and cities more vulnerable to increasingly violent storms and landslides.