Climate Change Impacts
Fiona Rochholz, Tobias Matusch, Jens Wunderlich, Alexander Siegmund
Abstract
The all-embracing impact of human-made climate change is widely visible in both Central and South Asia, areas highly susceptible to climate related risks. From rising atmospheric and oceanic temperatures, rising sea levels, shifting precipitation regimes, and glacier melt related floods, no area is spared by climate change. A high vulnerability to climatic extremes is a consequence of the region’s natural climate and geography and each country’s sociological and political structure. Natural disparities are amplified by inequalities in educational and cultural opportunities. Additionally, low climatic resilience exists in densely populated areas with high poverty rates, which exacerbates the exposure to climate extremes and to accumulation of natural catastrophic events. Economic and social sectors dependent on water, energy, and food resources will experience increasing stress, risking wealth and economic standards of the countries and communities under a changing climate. This chapter outlines the most significant changes in climate for the region and the impact of these changes on water, energy, and food resources. Most countries in Central and South Asia have already included important steps in their policies or have implemented a series of strategies and projects (e.g., climate change adaptation). However, full implementation of sustainable adaptation projects presents a number of difficulties, all of which can be addressed on national and transregional scales to improve resilience against climate related threats.