Mekong Countries Need to Ready Themselves for Climate Impacts

The Greater Mekong region is already strongly affected by climate change and a lack of immediate action will come at great cost to the region, states a new WWF report released during the UN climate change talks in Bangkok.

Average daily temperatures across Southeast Asia have already increased between 0.5 and 1.5ºC over the last 50 years, and temperatures are predicted to rise between 2ºC to 4ºC in the Greater Mekong region by the end of the century. These changes have negatively affected the area, which is one of the most biologically diverse in the world.

“Greater regional cooperation and coordination among Mekong nations is necessary to best cope with the impacts of climate change,” said Geoffrey Blate, Climate Change Coordinator for the WWF Greater Mekong Programme. “Maintaining ecosystem health across borders and over larger areas is likely the most cost efficient and effective long term adaptation strategy available.”

Already sea level rise is threatening the region’s coastal communities and changes to the climate are stressing ecosystems. Land is being lost in coastal zones, glacial melting in the Himalayas may impact the region’s major river flows, and wetlands will either dry up or flood out.

Such climate changes exacerbate current regional pressures such as habitat loss, poorly planned infrastructure and unsustainable natural resource extraction, further degrading the ecosystems upon which the region’s  social and economic future depends.

In its report, WWF recommends three key climate change adaptation strategies to reduce vulnerability across the region, which comprises Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and southwest provinces of China. These strategies include the protection of regional ecosystems, a reduction in non-climate stresses such as unsustainable infrastructure and over extraction of natural resources, and the implementation of a regional climate change adaptation agreement.

“There is a leadership opportunity here to champion what would be Asia’s first regional climate change adaptation agreement to help Greater Mekong nations prepare for the inevitable impacts of climate change,” said Blate.

But the report stresses that without decisive action on a global scale it would be very hard to avoid the worst impacts. It urges politicians to strike an ambitious and fair agreement on a climate treaty at upcoming talks in Copenhagen.

“Rich and developed nations must make deep emission cuts and commit to significant financial help to assist vulnerable regions such as the Greater Mekong,” said Kim Carstensen, Leader, WWF Global Climate Initiative.