Bindu Lohani, ADB's vice president for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development, speaking at the Second Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum in Bangkok, said resources available to "climate proof" roads, sewers, bridges and pipelines are "grossly inadequate."
"Public lenders and private investors cannot continue to channel billions of dollars to massive infrastructure projects without factoring in the realities of warmer temperatures, rising sea levels and more violent storms," Lohani said in a keynote speech Monday.
Last year ADB approved a record 59 projects supporting environmental sustainability, totaling about $7 billion in financing.
But ADB says that recent estimates indicate that the Asia Pacific region needs to spend about $40 billion per year through 2050 to prepare for the effects of climate change.
Although there are environmental funds, ADB says, there are currently no funds earmarked specifically for addressing climate-induced migration issues.
ADB's new report, "Addressing Climate Change and Migration in Asia and the Pacific," states that more than 42 million people in the region were displaced by environmental disasters over the past two years.
The report urges governments to work with the private sector to introduce sea level index-based insurance, catastrophe bonds and weather derivatives that would attract investors to finance and managing the risks posed by climate change. Read the full report here.
Source: UPI.com, Bangkok.
