Asia Pacific Disaster Report 2022 for ESCAP Subregions: Summary for Policymakers builds on ESCAP’s Asia Pacific Disaster Report 2021, Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2022 and the latest reports (2021/2022) issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). IPCC reports show a startling increase in global warming impacts in that, as we move from 1.5 to 2 degrees of warming, the risks to economies and people increase exponentially. It is worth noting that, while the overarching trends in climate change are global, they translate into different warming trends and impacts for each sub-region of Asia and the Pacific. Therefore, all sub-regions require their own risk profiles with sub-regional specificities in order to develop tailor-made resilience pathways to tackle multiple hazards.  

ESCAP has downscaled the global models of warming to Asia and the Pacific and its sub-regions. The Asia Pacific Disaster Report 2022 for ESCAP Subregions shows that under all climate-change scenarios, and in comparison to global averages, Asia and the Pacific will be most impacted by heavy precipitation, followed by agricultural drought, hot temperatures/heatwaves, and warming winds with intensifying tropical cyclones. Further, the Report highlights how each ESCAP subregion will be impacted in the medium to long term climate scenarios, and where the new hotspots of exposure and vulnerability to climate-induced, cascading multi-hazard scenarios will be created. This analysis highlights the sub-regional specificities which could otherwise be masked by the regional analysis.  

The Report recommends three key policy action tracks: 

First—Customized adaptation & resilience pathways with emphasis on risk informed development policies and investments. The adaptation gaps are critical in vulnerable subregions which are likely to be impacted the most in the 1.5-to-2-degree warming scenarios.  

Second—Frontier technologies and digital innovations not only reduce the cost of implementing the policy interventions, but also have game-changing impacts on scaling up transformative adaptation through enhanced risk analytics like impact forecasting and integrated multi-hazard risk assessment and early warning, surveillance, and strategic foresights, as well as for efficiently managing pandemics like COVID-19. 

Third—Regional co-operation along with subregional co-operation hold immense potential for addressing the region’s shared vulnerabilities and risks that are set to be more critical at 1.5 to 2 degrees warming. Sub-regional co-operation approaches is key to supporting transboundary ecosystem adaptations and nature-based solutions for building the region’s resilience and moving towards a climate resilient society for all.  

To facilitate the implementation of these recommendations, ESCAP has put in place the Asia-Pacific Risk and Resilience Portal as a delivery mechanism of the Asia-Pacific Disaster Resilience Network. It is aimed at supporting monitoring and implementation of climate and disaster-related Sustainable Development Goals as well as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.