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Climate change
OpinionComment
Rizwan Basir
Rizwan Basir

Opinion | On climate action, India and China should do better by their neighbours

  • While countries in South Asia are on the brink of climate disasters, the regional giants are intensifying their use of fossil fuels
  • China and India may have the resources to cope with the consequences, but their neighbours do not have the same level of adaptive capacity

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On May 4, residents cross a temporary bridge near empty hotels and houses that were damaged last year by flash floods in Bahrain, a town in Pakistan’s Swat valley. Unprecedented rains put a third of the country underwater, damaged two million homes and killed more than 1,700 people. Photo: AFP
Rizwan Basir
Following the devastating floods that wreaked havoc in Pakistan only last year, Bangladesh and Myanmar have now been battered by Cyclone Mocha, one of the most severe cyclones to strike South Asia this century. The cyclone – equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane – has resulted in 29 deaths according to some reports, and caused significant damage to Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar’s western Rakhine state.
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South Asia has long faced the dire threat of climate catastrophes. Yet, most of its urban and rural areas remain inadequately equipped to handle the increasing complexity of anticipated heatwaves, cyclones and rainfall. Immediate climate action is needed.

Regrettably, despite the clear need for mitigation measures, the two regional giants – India and China – have opted for a contrary approach by intensifying their use of fossil fuels and potentially exacerbating regional climate change.

Perhaps people aren’t yet suffering enough for policymakers to give climate change their full attention. Why else would governments disregard the hazards it poses? One possible explanation for this may be that media reports on climate change were not strongly worded enough to convince the developed world to respond with urgency.

The need for urgent action is evident in the last instalment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) on climate change, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s 2023 update on extreme weather, and the World Bank report on urban heat in South Asia.

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‘Where will we go?’: Family of 10 loses home to deadly Pakistan floods

‘Where will we go?’: Family of 10 loses home to deadly Pakistan floods

The IPCC report highlights a grave global reality: global average temperatures are likely to cross 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in the early 2030s. Once that threshold is breached, scientists expect the effects of climate change to be so severe that it may become impossible for human beings to adapt.

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