Chapter 10: Asia

Observed surface air temperature has increased in the 20th century all over Asia (high confidence1). Asian countries are experiencing a hotter summer climate, resulting in an increase in energy demand for cooling at a rapid rate, together with population growth (high confidence). A decrease in precipitation influences energy demand as well, as Asian terrestrial ecosystems change is driven by global warming, precipitation and Asian monsoon alteration, permafrost thawing and extreme events like dust storms along with natural and human-related factors which are in interplay (high confidence). Coastal habitats of Asia are diverse and the impacts of climate change including rising temperature, ocean acidification and sea-level rise have brought negative effects to the services and the livelihood of people depending on it (high confidence). Both climatic and non-climatic drivers such as socio-economic changes have created water stress conditions in both water supply and demand in all sub-regions of Asia (high confidence). The Asia glaciers are in minor area shrinkage and mass loss during 2006-2016, resulting in the instability of water resource supply (high confidence).

Since IPCC AR5, more studies reinforce the earlier findings on the spatial and temporal diversity of climate change impacts on food production in Asia depending on the geographic location, agroecology, and crops grown, recognizing that there are winners and losers associated with the changing climate across scales (high confidence). 

Asian urban areas are considered high-risk locations from projected climate, extreme events, unplanned urbanisation, and rapid land-use change (high confidence) but also sites of ongoing adaptation (medium confidence). Climate change caused direct losses due to the damage in infrastructure, disruption in services and affected supply chains in Asia (medium confidence) and will increase the risk to infrastructure as well as provide opportunities to invest in climate-resilient infrastructure and green jobs (medium confidence). Climate change is increasing vector-borne and water-borne diseases, undernutrition, mental disorders and allergic diseases in Asia by increasing the hazards such as heatwaves, flooding and drought, air pollutants, in combination with more exposure and vulnerability (high confidence). 

Increased climate variability and extreme events are already driving migration (robust evidence, medium agreement) and projecting longer-term climate change will increase migration flows across Asia (medium confidence). There is a small but growing literature highlighting the importance of behavioural aspects of adaptation in Asia (high confidence) but this is restricted primarily to agriculture and disaster risk reduction. Climate change is already causing economic loss and damage across Asian regions and this will increase under higher warming (medium confidence). Options such as climate smart agriculture, ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction, investing in urban blue-green infrastructure meet adaptation, mitigation, and sustainable development goals simultaneously, presenting opportunities for climate-resilient development (CRD) pathways in Asia (high confidence).