A new environmental report has warned that global warming could undo decades of social and economic progress across Asia unless immediate action is taken by the international community.
The ‘Up in Smoke? Asia and the Pacific’ report, which features a foreword by Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Dr RK Pachauri, was launched earlier in the week following new evidence that the UK is failing to stick to targets for renewable energy to tackle climate change.
According to CAFOD (the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development), it is the most “extensive and concluding chapter” of four years of research by the Up in Smoke coalition - an alliance of the UK's major environment and development groups.
The coalition came together to assess the impacts of climate change on efforts to reduce global poverty by way of community-based organisations engaged in constructing responses to a changing environment.
'Up in Smoke?' is the latest and most comprehensive report to emerge from communities around the world that are already feeling the impact of climate change and highlights just some of the growing consequences of inaction on the issue.
Regional farmers in northern China have lost their crops as a result of severe drought, while severe flooding across south Asia during the summer prompted a massive effort among UK aid agencies to meet the needs of 28 million affected people.
It shows how, across Asia, home to over 60 per cent of the world's population, communities are already acting to reduce the worst impacts of climate change.
“Unless a decisive international agreement is reached, and soon, the lives of those living on the front line of climate change will go up in smoke,” CAFOD said.
Chris Bain, CAFOD’s Director, said: "The effects of climate change are already impacting on CAFOD's development and humanitarian work. Communities are increasingly having to deal with more intense droughts, floods and storms.
"It is largely communities that have contributed least to climate change that are bearing the brunt. It is therefore the responsibility of developed nations to act to significantly reduce their carbon emissions, while also assisting vulnerable communities to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
"The UK has a responsibility to act with a strong Climate Change Bill and needs to push for significant progress at the UN talks in Bali."
