Climate-related disasters in Asia and the Pacific
Is there a relationship between these changes in climate and the increase in natural disasters in Asia and the Pacific? This Asian Development Bank economics working paper considers three main disaster risk factors: rising population exposure, greater population vulnerability, and increasing climate-related hazards, that are behind the increased frequency of intense natural disasters.
The most significant association is found to be between the increase in natural disasters and population exposure, represented by population densities. Population vulnerability also matters, but increasing incomes seem to be associated first with greater and then lesser vulnerability. and there is a notable association between climate-related hazards and the frequency of intense natural disasters in Asia and the Pacific and its subregions. The findings also suggest that there is a link between increasing natural disasters in Asia and the Pacific and man-made emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.