World Bank Report: Turn Down the Heat Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts and the Case for Resilience

World Bank in June 2013 came up with an executive Summary Report named by Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts, and the Case for Resilience which focuses on the risks of climate change to development in Sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia and South Asia. 

The Report is a said extension to World Bank report in November 2012 which was named by Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4°C Warmer World Must be Avoided which concluded that the world would warm by 4°C by the end of this century if we did not take concerted action now.

The Report Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts, and the Case for Resilience is totally based on scientific analysis which examines the likely impacts of present day, 2°C and 4°C warming on agricultural production, water resources, and coastal vulnerability for affected populations. The Report finds many significant climate and development impacts that are already being felt in some regions, and in some cases multiple threats of increasing extreme heat waves, sea level rise, more severe storms, droughts and floods are expected to have further severe negative implications for the poorest.

The best example to support the above fact can be cited from Vietnamwhere livelihoods are under threat. Livelihoods in Vietnam, which is part of vulnerable Southeast Asia, are facing threats from sea-level rise, ocean warming, and more severe storms and floods caused by an increasing possibility of the temperature rising by four degrees Celsius, the World Bank warns in a report.

Effects of the rising temperature in major Part of the world:

Thailand: Rising sea levels indicates that Bangkok could be flooded by the 2030s

Africa: Droughts and heat signifies that 40 per cent of the land now used for growing maize in Sub-Saharan Africa will no longer be able to support the crop.

South Asia: A potential change in the regularity of the monsoon season in South Asia could also cause a crisis. The floods which hit Pakistan in 2010 affecting 20 million people could become common.

The report basically presents an alarming scenario for the days and years ahead—what we could face in our lifetime. As per the scientists if the world warms by 2°C—warming which may be reached by 2040 which can cause widespread food shortages, unprecedented heat-waves, and more intense cyclones. In the near-term, climate change, which is already unfolding, could batter the slums even more and greatly harm the lives and the hopes of individuals and families who have had little hand in raising the Earth’s temperature.

Climate related extreme events could push households below the poverty trap threshold. High temperature extremes appear likely to affect yields of rice, wheat, maize and other important crops, adversely affecting food security. 

Promoting economic growth and the eradication of poverty and inequality will thus be an increasingly challenging task under future climate change. Immediate steps are needed to help countries adapt to the risks already locked in at current levels of 0.8°C warming, but with ambitious global action to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, many of the worst projected climate impacts could still be avoided by holding warming below 2°C