Assessing the costs of climate change and adaptation in South Asia

This report predicts significant economic losses in South Asia as the region faces the challenge of achieving and sustaining rapid economic growth to reduce poverty and attain other Millennium Development Goals in an era of accentuated risks posed by global climate change. Economic losses are predicted in in key sectors, such as agriculture, energy, transport, health, water, coastal and marine, and tourism. According to the report's findings the total climate change cost in South Asia will increase over time and will be prohibitively high in the long term. Without global deviation from a fossil-fuel-intensive path, South Asia could lose an equivalent 1.8% of its annual gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050, which will progressively increase to 8.8% by 2100.