SEA urged to take actions to prevent impacts from global warming

BANGKOK, February 13 (TNA) - Public and private sectors in Southeast Asia (SEA) have been urged to take part in global actions to limit rising temperatures worldwide in order to relieve negative environmental and economical consequences from the escalating climate change or global warming problem. The United Kingdom, in conjunction with the UK Met Office, has recently introduced, at the British Embassy in Bangkok, the so-called “4 Degree Map”, a poster showing how the world, particularly in the Southeast Asian region, would be changing if global temperatures increased by 4 degrees Celsius. If world temperatures rose by over 2 Degree Celsius on average by the end of this century, the global warming would likely affect rice growing in Thailand and deteriorate air pollution caused mainly by forest fire-borne haze, as well as, probably, land loss in Singapore and intensified tropical storms in the Philippines. Areas adjacent to the Mekong Delta would also face repeated flooded; while fishing and aquaculture in Indonesia would also be affected. Economically, according to a Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) report conducted in 2009, the regional gross domestic product (GDP) would likely fall by 6-7 per cent each year towards the end of the century if there were no timely actions to prevent the impacts of the climate change. The regional public and private sectors have been, thus, urged to limit the rising global temperatures by 2 degree Celsius, through, among other initiatives, observing a UN agreement on containing the global warming and investing more in low carbon technologies, otherwise the escalating climate change would threaten global prosperity and security. (TNA)