Weather patterns in the future will be characterized by intensity and extremes, and the effects will be felt in a wide range of sectors from agriculture and water resource management to health and infrastructure, according to South Asian scientists assembled by the Ministry of Environment and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Pakistan.  These finding were also supported by the UK Department for International Development.

Changes in water quantity and quality will occur, affecting food availability, stability, access and utilisation, warned Dr. Ainun Nishat, Country Representative of IUCN Bangladesh. The effect of sea-level rise, meanwhile, will be devastating on a country like Bangladesh. Close to 17 million people (or 15% of the population) and 22,000 sq km (or 16% of the country’s land area) are likely to be hard hit.

Rural communities are already feeling the effects of climate change, reporting excessive and erratic rainfall, an increase in number of flash floods, temperature variation, changes in seasonal cycles, and the increased occurrence of drought and dry spells. These effects are likely to worsen and adaptation strategies are urgently required. Areas where such measures will prove most effective, he noted, include flood and drought management, improvements in water supply and sanitation, erosion control and coastal aforestation.

Climate change will hit the poorest first, scientists warn, and it will hit them the hardest. Climate policy is predominantly energy policy,in most of the Asian nations they say,but increasingly it will become water policy. Internationally, the politics of climate will remain fractured but efforts will be required to reverse this trend.

Climate change is becoming a priority for most countries in South Asia. Although the region by and large has not been a cause of the problem, they are likely to suffer its consequences, scientists say.

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