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September 30, 2009 16:30 PM
Climate Change Poses Threat To Asia's Food, Energy Security
By D. Arul Rajoo
BANGKOK, Sept 30 (Bernama) -- Climate change poses fundamental threats to Asia's food and energy security, with likely upsurge of migration into already overburdened mega cities, according to three major new studies funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
According to the report, more than half of Asia's total population lived below the US$2 per day poverty line, and it was this sector of the population that depended on rain-fed agriculture and lived in settlements that are highly exposed to climate variability and change.
"The food and energy security of every Asian is threatened by climate change, but it's the poor, especially poor women, who are most vulnerable and most likely to migrate as a consequence," said ADB Vice-President Ursula Schaefer Preuss.
Draft versions of the studies were released Wednesday in Bangkok on the sidelines of a major United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations on a new climate change treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol's provisions, which expires in 2012.
Among the findings of the studies is that the impacts of rising temperatures in Asia will fall disproportionately on the region's poor, and rural women from developing countries will be among the most affected groups given their dependence on subsistence crops, their limited access to resources and their lack of decision-making power.
The agriculture study was produced by the International Food Policy Research Institute, United States, while the energy and migration studies were made by the Energy and Resources Institute, India and the University of Adelaide, Australia, respectively.
The report stated that the agricultural sector, and therefore, food security, was particularly vulnerable to climate change.
About 2.2 billion Asians rely on the sector for their livelihood, which is now threatened by falling crop yields caused by floods, droughts, erratic rainfall and other climate change impacts.
ADB said, current climate models indicated food prices might increase sharply by 2050, with rice (by 29 to 37 per cent); maize (58 to 97 per cent); and, wheat (81 to 102 per cent).
According to the energy report, Asia's access to affordable energy was under increasing threat due to factors including demand-supply gaps, high reliance on traditional biomass fuels, and the high-energy intensity of the region's economies.
"The region's vast renewable energy potential could help respond to this threat but only if policy and finance measures quickly scale-up proven technologies for the poor, including small hydro and solar power," it said.
-- BERNAMA
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