Climate change will lead to more flooding and drought in East Asia and could chop 5.3 percent off annual gross domestic product by the year 2100 if measures aren't adopted to tackle it, according to the Asian Development Bank.
Rising temperatures in China, Japan, Mongolia and South Korea will spur more flooding and tropical storms in coastal areas and make northern agricultural regions more prone to drought, the ADB said today in its “Economics of Climate Change in East Asia” report.
The study underscores the risks of inaction on climate change faced by a region that was responsible for 30 percent of the world’s carbon emissions in 2010. China’s model of economic growth at all costs has made it the world’s biggest carbon emitter and has blanketed cities in smog that can surpass World Health Organization recommendations by almost 40 times.