Mekong countries must prepare or face devastating climate consequences - WWF report

Bangkok, Thailand: The Greater Mekong region – one of the most biologically diverse on earth – needs to ready itself for further impacts of climate change, according a new WWF report released during UN climate change talks in Bangkok states.

Greater Mekong Climate Change Report notes the area is already severely affected by average daily temperature increases across Southeast Asia of between 0.5 to 1.5ºC from 1951 to 2000. Current predictions are for a further 0.79ºC increase in average temperatures across the Mekong River Basin over the next two decades.

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.

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.