Publication

The frequency of intense floods and storms is increasing globally, particularly in the Asia-Pacific, amid the spectre of climate change. Associated with these natural disasters are more variable and extreme rainfall and temperatures as recorded in publicly available databases for the Asia-Pacific and the Philippines (the country in focus). The risks of these events result from a confluence of three factors: rising exposure of populations, increasing vulnerabilities, and the changing nature of the hazards themselves. All these three factors are contributing to increasingly turn natural hazards into intense natural disasters. The economies along the coastal areas in South, Southeast (for example the Philippines), and East Asia are at the greatest risk, especially the low- and lower-middle-income economies. These catastrophes threaten the otherwise dramatic progress on poverty reduction in the Asia-Pacific during the last three decades. This outlook points to the urgent need for these economies to not only adapt to natural disasters, but also to mitigate climate change that seems to underlie the new trends

Read more: http://www.adb.org/documents/intense-climate-disasters-and-development-asia-pacific?ref=themes/climate-change/publications : http://www.adb.org/documents/intense-climate-disasters-and-development-asia-pacific?ref=themes/climate-change/publications