This year’s “biblical flooding” in Pakistan and scorching heat waves in India are reminders of a harsh reality: Climate change is already inflicting insufferable miseries onto millions in South Asia. While the causes of changing weather patterns are rooted in aggregate global emissions, the intensity of devastation depends on highly localized factors. Although the vast majority of the total global CO2 emissions responsible for monsoon flooding originated half a world away, their devastating effects on lives, livelihoods, and public infrastructure are concentrated in South Asia.
The imperative of climate protection is thus the quintessential global public good that cannot be achieved by a single country or even the entire bloc of industrialized countries. Countries in South Asia – constituting about 25 percent of the world’s population – must be technologically empowered in their fight against climate change,
Recent disasters have shown that all else being equal, communities with robust mitigation plans within jurisdictions that have mainstreamed climate adaptation to create climate-resilient built environments greatly minimize losses. While rich economies move rapidly into cleaner energy technologies, such as smarter grids and electric vehicles, to reduce emissions, South Asian countries are missing out almost entirely. They produce fewer new clean technology patents, are slower to adapt solutions when available, and thus continue treading low-efficiency energy pathways compared to advanced economies.
