Climate change results in more frequent and intensified extreme weather events affecting communities, especially in the Global South. In 2021 alone, 432 environmental events were recorded worldwide, with flooding during the monsoon season dominating these disasters. From this number, 174 events occurred in the Asia Pacific region where some of the worst tropical storms devastated rural communities. Recently, Pakistan and India also experienced record high temperatures that resulted in glacier bursting, destroying crops and also causing deaths due to heat stress.
Located near the Pacific Ocean, in which tropical cyclones develop throughout the year, Asia Pacific is prone to “natural” disasters, now exacerbated by man-made global warming. The food and agriculture sector bear the brunt of these climate change-linked disasters. Farmers and other food producers suffer the most as their homes and livelihoods are destroyed, forcing displacement and exacerbating landlessness and poverty for farmers .
PAN Asia Pacific compiled 25 extreme weather disturbances from 2021 to 2022 in the Asia Pacific from various online reports to show a simple illustration of the climate crisis and its impacts on farmers. (See table for details).
Industrialised countries and big companies contribute most to environmental pollution while small underdeveloped nations face the extreme consequences of climate change. From flooding, tropical storms, heatwave and drought alone, PANAP recorded about 12 million hectares of croplands destroyed. The affected croplands were mostly submerged from flooding.
Tropical storms and flooding in the past two years destroyed 4.3 million hectares of land amounting to USD 4.02 billion worth of damages and at resulting in at least 33.1 million people including farmers, food producers and rural people losing their homes and livelihoods.
Meanwhile, almost 6.9 million hectares of croplands were lost due to drought, with ten thousand people affected and farmers losing an estimated USD 8.40 billion. On the other hand, heatwaves destroyed nearly 68 thousand hectares, amounting to USD 39 million worth of losses and affecting 300,000 people. Monitored data on heatwaves and drought were mostly in South Asia.
Overall, the climate crisis cost farmers an estimated USD 12 billion in damages, with at least 33 million people affected in the Asia Pacific region.
As the climate crisis worsens, it is expected to cause even more devastation and suffering for rural communities in the years to come. At the COP27 climate negotiations and beyond, PANAP joins rural people’s movements in calling for meaningful loss and damage reparations–and a radical transformation from the current fossil fuel-hungry and polluting food systems, to people-led climate-resilient and sustainable food and farming systems.
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