Study says climate change threatens water, food security for 1.6 billion people in South Asia

October 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Water scarcity as a result of climate change will create far-reaching global security concerns, Nobel laureate and Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Rajendra K. Pachauri has warned.

October 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Water scarcity courtesy climate change will create global security concerns, according to Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, chair of the intergovernmental panel on climate change, a co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

October 4th, 2009 ISTANBUL - Climate change could depress the economic output of Africa and South Asia by as much as five percent per year, the World Bank warned Sunday. The effects of a warming of the Earth's temperature by even two degrees Celsius could put up to 400 million people at risk of hunger and leave up to two billion lacking enough water resources.

October 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Climate change poses fundamental threats to Asia's food and energy security which, if left unchecked, will result in an upsurge of migration into already overburdened mega cities, according to three major new studies funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). "The food and energy security of every Asian is threatened by climate change, but it's the poor -- and especially poor women -- who are most vulnerable and most likely to migrate as a consequence," said ADB Vice-President Ursula Schaefer-Preuss as the studies were released Friday.

September 30th, 2009 UN: climate change impact on agriculture direROME — A U.N. agency warns that the climate change will badly affect agriculture and hit developing nations hardest, leading to unreliable food production and higher prices.

September 30th, 2009 Report: Climate change means more hungry childrenJOHANNESBURG — Scientists fear climate change will mean 25 million more hungry children over the next four decades, with subsistence farmers in Africa and Asia particularly hard hit by global warming, according to a report issued Wednesday. The authoritative International Food Policy Research Institute said even without climate change, 113 million children under 5 years old will be malnourished in 2050 worldwide.

September 30th, 2009 BANGKOK - Climate-change adaptation is likely to cost developing countries $75-90 billion annually from 2010 to 2050, according to a study released Wednesday by the World Bank. Based on an assumption that global temperatures would rise at least two degrees Celsius over the next four decades, adaptation costs for the developing world in such sectors as infrastructure "climate proofing" are to cost $75-90 billion a year, the bank said on the sidelines of UN climate-change talks being held this week and next in Bangkok.

September 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Reports indicate that climate change may affect critical water resources that support prey for 75 migratory bird species in the Great Basin in the US. As climate change either freshens wetlands or drier weather makes them saltier, the distribution and availability of waterbird prey species may impact which waterbirds can use the wetlands and when.

August 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have said that the beefed-up diets of Asia's expanding middle class could lead to chronic food shortages for the water-stressed region. According to a report in National Geographic News, the threat was highlighted in a study by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which estimate that Asian demand for food and livestock fodder will double in 40 years.

August 28th, 2009 LONDON - A new study has determined that the global cost of adapting to climate change has been grossly underestimated, and it could be much greater than expected. According to a report in Nature News, although it doesn't provide concrete new estimates, the report suggests that the total cost of adapting to climate change could be at least 2-3 times more than the previous estimate from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

August 24th, 2009 STOCKHOLM - Participants at the World Water Week conference here have urged the governments to include the problem of water shortage in the negotiations on climate change. Access to drinking water has a significant impact on economy, health, agriculture and other spheres of life, they said.

August 18th, 2009 STOCKHOLM - Asia needs to improve irrigation and introduce water reform to feed growing populations in the coming decades, a new study said Tuesday. The population in Asia is projected to increase by 1.5 billion people by 2050.

June 19th, 2009 SKorean PM says climate change a threat to AsiaSEOUL, South Korea — South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said Friday that Asia is at grave risk from climate change and warned that responding to the environmental threat cannot be separated from fighting the global economic crisis. "Asian countries are particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change," Han said in a speech at the annual World Economic Forum on East Asia.

June 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, John Kerry, expressing concerns over the deteriorating environmental conditions in South Asia, has said that the changing climate of the region could adversely affect the relationship between India and Pakistan. Kerry, in his speech titled 'Climate change and American foreign policy: security challenges, diplomatic opportunities, said the problems of climatic change were acute in South Asia, which could have a serious impact on the relations of the two nuclear powers of the region.

May 29th, 2009 Climate-change diasters kill 300,000 a yearLONDON — Climate-change disasters kill around 300,000 people a year and cause about $125 billion in economic losses, mainly from agriculture, a think-tank led by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan reported Friday.