Decades of development in Asia will be reversed by climate change, threatening the lives of millions of people, environmentalists and aid agencies warned on November 19. The Working Group on Climate Change and Development, an umbrella group of greens and aid groups, said Asia was on the frontline of the climate change threat.
"Asia is at a critical juncture as the home to almost two thirds of humanity. It has made real advances in reducing poverty but lies on the frontline of impacts from climate change," said co-author Andrew Simms.
"Now if it follows a fossil-fuelled Western economic development path, it will set in train an irreversible course of events that will guarantee a great reversal in its own progress," added Simms of the New Economics Foundation.
The coalition's Up in Smoke report calls on industrialised nations to act "first and fastest" to cut emissions, ensure technology transfer and increase adaptation funds to help Asia deal with the effects of global warming.
"To prevent catastrophic global warming, the only feasible alternative is for wealthy countries to dramatically reduce their 'luxury' greenhouse gas emissions, so that the 'survival' emissions of people in poor countries do not cause disaster," said Simms.
Over half of Asia's four billion-strong population lives near coasts, putting them in danger from sea-level rises, while more extreme weather patterns threaten the whole region, the report says.
The group said India and China, the region's two biggest economies and emerging global giants, should move away from coal in favour of renewable power which could provide them with long-term energy security.
Chinese agricultural productivity will fall by 5-10 percent if no action is taken, with the production of wheat, rice and corn decreasing by up to 37 percent in the second half of this century, it noted.
Countries such as Bangladesh are particularly vulnerable to climate change in the form of flooding and droughts. India meanwhile could be threatened by energy and food supply insecurity, reduced fresh water supplies and increases in extreme weather events, the report says.
The Working Group comprises aid agencies and green organisations including ActionAid, Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Oxfam and WWF.