Climate change in Asia

Global air and ocean temperatures are rising. Oceans are acidifying and ice caps are melting. Natural disasters are occurring more frequently and their intensity is also increasing. Warming of the climate system is unequivocal. Growing atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is leading to rise in heat. Earth's average temperature in the last century has increased by about 3-4°C. It is now well documented that such warming will bring huge damages to ecosystems, species, human infrastructures, societies and livelihoods.

Climate change is no longer a distant threat to progress. Climate and more frequent natural disasters threaten to significantly increase hunger and malnutrition. More frequent and intense natural disasters; deteriorating environment and land productivity; and reduced access to food, water and sanitation are projected to increase the risk of hunger and malnutrition worldwide-most affecting countries where hunger, undernutrition and food insecurity are already widespread. It is projected that four decades from now, Asia would be hungry region (Curran, 2010). Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to earth's changing climate. It is second only to sub-Saharan Africa. South Asia will be particularly hard hit. Disasters and extreme weather could become common. Climate change is predicted to increase frequency of floods, droughts, forest fires and tropical cyclones. Asia already accounts for 89 per cent of people affected by disasters worldwide. Occurrences of El Niño have been more frequent, persistent and intense since the mid-1970s compared with the previous 100 years; approximately two-thirds of that warming has since 1975. Global emissions of carbon dioxide are on an increase.

Asia's poor are among the most vulnerable because of their dependence on agriculture and this region also hosts major share of world's poor and the poorest. People in Asia also have inability to adapt to rising temperatures and extreme weather Nearly 60 per cent of the region's economically active population and the dependents rely on agriculture for their livelihoods (WFP. 2009) Tropical cyclones and typhoons continue to have large-scale effects on the food security of populations living in Asia The countries most affected would be Bangladesh. Mynamar. Philippines, Indonesia, East Timor and Vietnam. International Panel for Climate Change predicts that small island-states in Asia are to suffer 30-50 per cent maize yield and experience a 10-35 per cent decline in sugarcane vield. As per the estimates of World Food Programme, Asia will experience up to a 50 per cent decline in wheat and a 17 per cent decline in rice crop yield by 2050 compared with 2000 levels. China is favourably placed because higher future temperatures are favourable in locations where current temperatures are at the low end of the optimal temperature for the crop. India and other parts of South Asia are particularly hard hit by climate change.

Food security problem is going to get aggravated due to water scarcity that is increasing in the region. In a country like India water problem has reached alarming levels. Droughts have led to over-exploitation of ground water and water tables have gone down significantly Winter rains in South Asia have reduced significantly. Melting of Himalayan glaciers has increased and predictions are that most will not last bevond 2050. Drinking water problem is getting complicated and affecting the women the most as they are carriers of water for domestic use. Waste water management required added attention in these countries, especially India. Water policies require fresh look too. There has to be regional focus and people's partici pation in water management. Water harvesting has to be put on top of the agenda Drought management is receiving attention, but results are not adequate enough.

It is not only that food security is at risk; health problems are also going to get complicated. Climate change is expected to eliminate much of the improvement in combating child malnu trition. In South Asia, there is expected rise in malnourished children by 11 per cent by 2050 (52.3 million to 58.1 million). Human beings are adapted to climate change through changing weather patterns and indirectly through changes in water, air, food quality and quantity, ecosystems, agriculture, livelihoods and infrastructure. Direct and indirect exposures can cause death, disability and sufferings. Ill-health increases vulnerability and reduces the capacity of individuals and groups to adapt to climate change. Public health largely depends on safe drinking water, sufficient food, secure shelter, and good social conditions. Access to clean drinking water will be compromised by severe droughts, and more intense monsoon. events such as cyclones and floods could lead to epidemics.

Rural Asia is dependent on livestock for livelihoods. Grasslands can reduce the vulnerability to climate change of the 1 billion plus people who depend on livestock for a living (FAO, 2009). Grazing lands are estimated to store 30 per cent of the world's soil carbon in addition to the substantial amount of above-ground carbon held in trees, bushes, shrubs and grasses. But overgrazing, salinization, acidi fication and other processes have led to land degradation on about 70 per cent of pastures (ibid). Pressure on land is also increasing to meet fast growing demand for meat and dairy products. If these processes are not reversed it would lead to big livelihood losses in the time to come.

Gender and climate change have not been part of the policy regime, though in the recent years focus is shifting in international arena to bring gender at centre stage. Women and men are affected by climate differently due to social responsibilities and economic and political inequalities. Major gender concerns on climate change arise because of food security, water and other natural resources, liveli hoods, health and so on. Women are particularly vulnerable to climate change because they are more prone to the adverse impacts caused by climate change. They have limited adaptive capacities that arise from prevailing social inequalities and endorsed by social and economic roles that manifest in differences in property rights, access to infor mation, lack of employment and unequal access to resources. Further, changes in the climate usually impact sectors like agriculture, forest, plantation, fisheries where women are traditionally associated and hence great hardship for them. Women in Asia are more vulnerable compared to women in North. Women are poorer than men; about 70 per cent of poor are women. Poverty and climate change are related and so women are affected more. Besides, gender-based inequity in access to education and training has also persisted. Despite being victims of climate change, women are also effective agents of change in relation to both mitigation and adaptation. They have a strong body of knowledge and expertise that can be used in climate change mitigation, disaster reduction and adaptation strategies. Women are however, underrepresented in decision-making on sustainable devel opment, including climate change, and this impedes their ability to contribute their unique and valuable perspectives and expertise on climate change. Financing mechanisms are not flexible enough to reflect women's priorities and needs. Technological developments related to climate change neither take into account women's specific priorities and needs nor make full use of their knowledge and expertise, including traditional practices.

Global carbon market is burgeoning. With the unregulated voluntary sector, the regulated market for carbon credits is also expected to increase significantly. The bulk of carbon trading is carried out through the sale of allowances under the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme, which covers industries emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide. In this increasing market expansion, developing countries too would have to contribute their share in reducing the overall net emissions level. India and China are among the top five polluters and both are against being covered under mandatory reductions of the Kyoto Protocol. The manner in which the infrastructure of carbon trading has developed globally and the way the global market has evolved, there exists a case for developing countries, especially India to come together for a voluntary "cap and trade" scheme. Businesses could also follow an approach of growing "carbon neutral" and can buy offset emissions credits. Such a scheme would stimulate project development for emissions reduction under the Kyoto-linked CDM and also hasten the introduction of low-carbon technologies. Investment market disciplining through tracking the carbon footprints of various companies in mutual fund portfolios and so on could bring greater awareness on the need for climate action in a more concerted way.

The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) has recognized the importance of climate change and developed environmental indicators' in collaboration with the Inter-Governmental Working Group Climate change has figured as an important issue to be tackled with the UN statistical framework. The framework used for environmental statistics collection and compilation by UN covers almost every variables related to climate change. It therefore makes the segregation of gathered information between climate change and environment all the more difficult. What is important in a social perspective is the rigorous analysis of the available statistics pertaining to climate change either under environmental statistics or  develop a special mechanism to make use of the available statistics on climate change. There are problems of availability and reliability of existing data on climate change and thus a need exists for devel oping a framework for a detailed data gathering system for climate change which is internationally comparable.

Finally, mitigation and adaptation processes have to be speeded up. Asian governments have to convert to clean energy sources, use soil carbon sequestration, harvest water, improve grazing lands, take anti-desertification measures, prepare for natural disasters and undertake emissions trading schemes. Capacities of the poor especially in rural areas, would have to be built up to counter and adapt to an extra 2°C rise in earth's temperature that is critical to maintain agricultural production. The papers in this volume attempt to bring to the fore the above detailed issues. Major concerns addressed include sources of climate change, water, health, droughts, gender, carbon market, and statistics. Mitigation and adaptation concerns are also looked into, especially from gender perspective.

Many of the anticipated impacts of climate change will operate through water. For example, changing rainfall and river flow patterns will affect water users, increased uncertainty and shifting crop water requirements will threaten poor rain-fed farmers and intensification of droughts, floods, typhoons and monsoons will make many more people vulnerable. The risks and uncertainties would proliferate around water-borne disease incidences, glacier melt, rising sea levels and so on (Sadoff and Muller, 2009). Water is the crucial medium through which climate change will impact people, ecosystems and economies. Water resources management thus has to focus on adaptation to climate change. Globally, the overall impacts of climate change on freshwater resources are expected to be adverse. Climate change has repercussions for health and women both.

To begin with, N. Vijay Jagannathan and Sanjay Pahuja in their paper argue that the water situation in the face of climate change predictions is likely to become of crisis proportions as water supplies get scarcer, and the demand for water becomes greater. The paper points out that the solution lies in combining the experiences from the past, where such conditions have been observed and a variety of approaches evolved to ensure that whatever water is available should be used productively and in a sustained manner with active engagement of communities. In the past centuries such water management arrangements varied in scale, complexity, technology and purpose, but had an important common feature of beneficiaries understanding their roles and responsibilities in managing the resource, determining priorities for allocating the water, on the basis of formal or informal rules; and assigning responsibilities for admin istering the rules. This ABCDE approach has been short-circuited in the 20th century with the confidence that science and technology could engineer' solutions by storing, conveving and distributing water over great distances. The paper demonstrates that some of the core processes of informing stakeholders of the emerging risks, of consequences of their actions, and of ensuring accountability by focusing on outcomes have remain unchanged. The policy challenge is to transform the existing planning practices for water management to meet the new frontiers induced by climate change consideration.

AJ. James' paper draws a distinction between conventional rural development and agricultural policies, which aimed largely at improving productivity, and adaptation policies, which focus on building systemic resilience in terms of stability and sustainability. It also notes the historic neglect of rainfed agriculture particularly after the Green Revolution in India, and the consequent imbalance in policy support for irrigated and rainfed agriculture. The paper argues for coordinated policies to build resilience into rainfed farming systems (including livestock), noting the need to improve the natural resource base in sustainable manner, to provide the necessary incen tives for rural communities to do so, and to provide safety nets in the interim. Only such coordinated action to create drought-resilient villages, districts and states by building buffers of food grain, fodder and water to overcome the adaptation deficit, will reduce the vulnera bility and shocks due to increased climatic variability and the high and rising social costs of droughts and drought relief. Traditional approaches to coping with droughts sought to create buffers of food grain, fodder and water, using practices aimed at preserving soil fertility, enhancing biomass production and harvesting rainwater. However, massive public works including irrigation infrastructure and drought relief were required to save rural communities from the death

and debilitation of drought-induced famines. Policies that are aimed at developing the resource base in order to enhance its productivity have not only destroyed the buffers and the incentives to create them, but they have also done so at the cost of stability and sustainability of the agro-ecosystem. Redressing this adaptation deficit requires an elimination of the 'development deficit that caused the debilitation of the system in the first place,but a subsequent investment in policies that will provide (a) the right incentives to local communities to preserve their natural resource base, and (b) social security nets in times of extreme distress. Only such a coordinated policy framework can tackle the rising costs of drought relief, which is the real cost of climatic variability in semi-arid rural areas of India.

Maharjan, Joshi and Piya in their paper attempt to analyse different aspects of climate change in Nepal including emission scenario, indications of climate chagne, impact of climate chagne and initiatives taken by Nepal towards mitigating the adverse impact of climate chagne. They point out that though Nepal has negligible share of GHGs emission, the rate of emission is alarmingly high mainly due to the constantly increasing use of fossil fuels, emission from livestock, and use of nitrogen fertilizer. Sectorwise emission in Nepal shows agriculture and forestry as the two most important sectors contributing almost 90 per cent of total emission. It is also pointed that despite low level of emission, Nepal has already shown some indication of climate change in terms of rising temperature and variability in rainfall. There has been annual temperature increase of 0.054°C during the years 1976-2005, which is expected to increase further. Temperature is increasing at higher rate in relatively higher altitude. Winter temperature increase is more pronounced compared to summer temperature. Rainfall too is showing the increasing trend but degree of variability explained by the trend analysis is very weak. The authors argue that increase in temperature and rainfall pattern has negative direct influence on water resource at the highest level followed by agriculture, forest and health sector of the country. Increased threat of GLOFS poses threats to important infrastructures in the downstream including settlements claiming enormous amounts of assets and lives of thousands. Akin to it, higher variability in run-off results into increased water disaster such as flood, landslide, sedimentation, and more pronounced variations in water availability throughout the year. These kinds of events also adversely affect livelihood assets.

Agriculture being the major source of livelihood for large proportion of Nepalese population and it being dependent on weather conditions would be adversely affected by variations in temperature and rainfall. Crop loss due to flooding, inundation, landslide and drought is common phenomena in Nepal these days causing reduced production in major crops. Increased temperature above 4°C is found to have negative impact on agriculture, especially in Tarai where significant proportion of cultivable land of the country is located. Even at higher altitude, improved agricultural productivity can be achieved at the cost of decreased agricultural productivity in the long run. Impact of climate change on forests can be seen in the form of alteration of forest composition and thereby loss in biodiversity. There is also spread of vector-borne diseases in the new regions, which is a major challenge in the health sector as a consequence of climate change. In addition, increased incidence of water-borne diseases, and negative impact on agriculture and forest will affect health sector adversely. The paper calls for proactive role of the Nepalese government with intense research and development. to incorporate these aspects in international negotiations including capacity development, which is very crucial to deal with adverse impact of climate change as well as meet its overarching goal of poverty reduction.

Pradosh Kiran Nath systematically and critically reviews the existing literature on the impacts of climate change on different aspects of life across countries and draws insights into suggesting a comprehensive policy framework in this regard. It carries out regional and sectoral analysis of the impacts of climate change. The paper finds that the climate change is likely to affect different sectors of Indian economy; the sectors that rely heavily on natural environment and are subject to lack of adequate resources for adapting to changing climate would be affected more. The effects of climate change are also likely to be different across regions as well as various sectors of Indian economy depending upon the effectiveness of coping strategies of the people and pro-poor government policies.

The author further argues that India is highly vulnerable to climate change and majority of its population is rural-based and poor who neither have insurance, nor personal capital to protect themselves against the onslaught of nature. Their livelihood is heavily dependent on nature-based resources, which is fast changing, and therefore it is utmost necessary to strengthen their ability to adapt to changing conditions. It is futile to expect that the farmers on their own capability can adapt to changing circumstances. Lack of awareness, information, financial support, alternative employment avenues etc. have made them dependent upon the state. But, the government support mechanism is weak and not pro-active which adds to their disadvantage.

Taking a cue from national and international experience of successful adaptation, the paper points out that only private effort is not enough to adapt to climate change. Government has key role to play in supplementing the efforts of private sector and civil society which should be done by taking into account local resource base and the kind of stress climate change creates, as there can be no single prescription for a problem across the globe. The kind of stressors varies across region and even within a sector. Given the inevitability of global warming, and given that India will bear a disproportionate cost of that change. India's policy at international level also needs a change. It needs to encourage all countries to act urgently to mitigate climate change by taking the lead and setting precedence in this matter. Tradable carbon scenario can in fact be good options for India. It is better to do something positive rather than playing the blame game and face the inevitable.

Surjit Singh and Mohanakumar in their paper scan the issues reflecting on nexus between climate change and health through eye-lens of literature. Today, the world population is encountering unfamiliar human-induced changes in the lower and middle atmospheres and worldwide depletion of various other natural systems. There is now recognition that global climate change poses risks to human population health. Indeed, consideration of global climatic-environmental hazards to human health has to become a central issue in the sustainability transition debate. In poor. countries, the impacts of major vector-borne diseases and disasters can limit or even reverse improvements in social development. Short-range climatic forecasts may help reduce health impacts.

Changes in infectious disease transmission patterns is a likely major consequence of climate change. The paper argues that we need to learn more about the underlying complex causal relationships, and apply this information to the prediction of future impacts, using more complete, better-validated, integrated, models. Climate change will affect the pattern of deaths from exposure to high or low temper atures. However, the effect on actual disease burden cannot be quantified, the authors argue. Overall, the paper points out that the estimates of changes in risk are somewhat unstable because of regional variation in rainfall. Impacts of inland floods are predicted to increase by a similar proportion, and would generally cause a greater acute rise in disease burden. While these proportional increases are similar in developed and developing regions, the baseline rates are much higher in developing countries. Changes in various vector-borne infectious diseases are predicted. This is partic ularly so for malaria in regions bordering current endemic zones Smaller changes would occur in currently endemic areas. Long time-series of health changes in populations in relation to steep (sensitive) climate-disease relationships must be informative. Such monitoring can become more effective through international collab oration and integration with existing surveillance networks.

Adaptive strategies intended to protect public health will be needed whether or not actions are taken to mitigate climate change. Building capacity is an essential preparatory step. Adapting to climate change will require more than financial resources, technology and public health infrastructure. Education, awareness-raising and the creation of legal frameworks, institutions and an environment that enables people to take well-informed, long-term, sustainable decisions are all needed. It is further argued that the existence of scientific uncertainties precludes policy makers from taking action today in anticipation of climate change. There is inertia. Policy makers, resource managers and other stakeholders, despite the existence of uncertainties, have to be proactive. The outcomes of these decisions may be affected by climate change. Or the decisions may foreclose future opportunities to adapt to climate change. Hence, the decision makers would benefit from information about the likely impacts of climate change. An informed decision is always better than an uninformed decision Care must be taken to respect the boundary between assessment and policy formation, the authors argue. International agencies, national governments, regional and local governments, corporate sector, and civil society organizations and other stakeholders should join hands to build awareness. Finally, there is cost involved in effectively addressing the threats from climate change that will affect human health.

Mathew Kurian, Ratna Reddy, Rammohan Rao and Snehalata in their paper attempt to study the wastewater externalities, in terms of magnitude, intensity and nature, across climatic zones and seasons. The paper is based on the premises that climate variability and wastewater linkages could have several impacts on the commu nities like contamination of downstream water flows in the river basins, health impacts in the towns and impacts on agricultural production. After analysing all aspects of wastewater use, the paper points out that though STPs are financially viable, it is a herculean task for the governments to provide finance for setting them up across all the cities. State institutions are inefficient in ensuring economic viability of projects due to poor enforcement and collection of tariffs. The paper identifies some elements of a macro strategy: (i) the low cost option of multiple oxidation ponds is better in terms of financial viability as well as improving the conditions in the short run and given the financial status of most of the secondary municipalities, it makes economic sense too. It also does not impose much extra burden on the communities, making it politically acceptable. (ii) Simultaneously, in the long run, better management systems need to be established and manage the STPs Private parties can share the financial burden, besides improving the efficiency of the systems and play an effective role in providing institutional support for enforcing the price mechanisms. The state can be a facili tator and a monitoring authority for ensuring quality services at a reasonable cost to the consumers. (iii) Evolving proper institutional arrangements at the local and river basin level is critical for sustainable water resource management. (iv) Identification and bridging the information and knowledge gaps. There is little infor mation on magnitude, spread and impacts of wastewater in the developing countries. Indicators should be identified on the basis of studies in sample towns. (v) Involvement of local communities in the planning process is necessary in order to facilitate smooth implemen tation. (vi) Awareness building is the key to better functioning of the institutions, which is presently very poor. Finally, the paper argues that the capacities of local communities are not enough to under stand the complex nature of the resource. Capacity building of the local bodies should precede or go in tandem with devolution of functions, funds and functionaries to these bodies. In the absence of proper capacities they may not be able to deliver the responsibilities.

Surjit Singh in his paper raises very important gender concerns on climate change. The paper discusses why we consider man and woman differently. The issues of food security, water, health. livelihoods and so on are discussed and reported that woman are more vulnerable than men on these fronts with changing climate.

Gender should be integrated into all mechanisms, policies and measures, and tools and guidelines within the climate change debate In this regard, the paper details the steps to be taken which include global and national studies on the gender-differentiated impacts of global climate change with a focus on gender differences in capabil ities to cope with climate change adaptation and mitigation. These need to be published as case studies and made widely available and easily accessible.

A gender analysis of all budget lines and financial instruments regarding climate change should be undertaken. Governments should aim to ensure the involvement of women and gender experts when they prepare their contributions for the international and national processes, and ensure women's participation at interna tional and national meetings. There is also need to invest in research in areas such as gender-specific resource-use patterns; gender-specific effects of climate change; gender aspects of mitigation and adaptation; women's and men's capacities to cope with climate change: and gender-related patterns of vulnerability. Most of the climate change strategies proposed need to be built upon existing gendered strategies already being practised and incorporate lessons learnt about agricultural, livestock, water and coastal management, as well as disaster management. Multidisciplinary groups are needed while developing climate change mitigation and adaptation strat egies, policies, research or initiatives so that environmental, social, gender and economic aspects receive equal attention. Women, like men, should have equitable access to the benefits of market-based approaches to curbing climate change. They must also be involved in climate protection negotiations at all levels and in all decisions on climate protection. Representation by numbers is not enough; women need to represent themselves and we need to involve gender experts, the paper articulates.

Varsha Joshi in her paper focuses on gender and health concerns in South Asia due to climate change impact with special reference to Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The paper argues that it is necessary to understand climate change and its negative health impacts as a development issue with gender implications that cuts across all sectors-social, cultural, economic and political. Affir mative efforts are required by all stakeholders to ensure that climate change and disaster risk reduction measures are gender-responsive. sensitive to indigenous knowledge systems and respect human rights.

Joshi further argues that health early warning systems are especially important in the context of heatstroke, extreme weather events, and disease outbreaks for developing and developed countries. The effectiveness of such warning systems depends on the past and current disease monitoring and surveillance, and accurate and reliable meteorological and climatic forecasts. Health early warning systems are a win-win strategy that reduces the risk of disease whilst increasing adaptive capacity that is most essential in the context of developing countries. Women and men must equally participate in climate change, disaster risk reduction decision-making processes at community, national and South Asia regional levels, she points out. Given that women's knowledge and participation has been critical to the survival of entire communi cation in disaster situation, government should take advantage of women's specialized skills in various aspects of their livelihood and natural resource management strategies that lend themselves to mitigation and adaptation. Governments must also pursue gender-responsive budgeting to ensure adequate allocation of resources to enhance the capacity of women, especially the poorest and most disadvantaged, to foster their resilience to climate change and disasters. Practical tools should be developed that allow governments and institutes to incorporate gender equality in climate change initiative. Further, governments and regional organizations should monitor, prepare for, and respond to climate-induced human displacement, migration and conflict, paying special attention to the needs of women and children. South Asia cooperation must be promoted and coordinated to effectively respond to the global issues of gender in climate change, disaster risk reduction and food security; and women organizations and specialized agencies, civil society, elected representatives and departments responsible for gender equality and women's affairs must have a stronger voice and role in the discussions and decisions that are being made on climate change and disaster risk reduction.

U. Kalpagam's paper examines key features of the global carbon market. It first highlights the infrastructure for global trading of carbon credits. It then examines the functioning of the regulated market segment covered by the Kyoto Protocol. The voluntary segment of the carbon market though small is a growing one, but ithas its own problems as well. Notwithstanding the ethical and perhaps also economic arguments often raised against adopting market-based solutions rather than direct limitations through quantitative restrictions and penal taxes on polluting parties, it argued that the carbon market affords opportunities to India in both contributing to reduction of greenhouse gases by adopting environ mentally sustainable development practices, and in reaping gains from trading in environment-related financial instruments.

She further argues that developing countries would have to contribute their share in reducing the overall net emissions level India's argument is that its per capita emissions level is very low as compared to the developed countries, and it was not responsible for past pollution being a developing country. India's carbon intensity remains relatively high and unchanging over the last twenty-five years on account of heavy reliance on low quality coal, the paper points out. Given the way the infrastructure of carbon trading has developed globally and the way the global market has evolved, there exists a case for Indian business to come together for a voluntary 'cap and trade scheme. Businesses could also follow an approach of growing 'carbon neutral and can buy offset emissions credits. Such a scheme would stimulate project development for emissions reduction under the Kyoto-linked CDM and also hasten the intro duction of low-carbon technologies, Investment market disciplining through tracking the carbon footprints of various companies in mutual fund portfolios and so on could bring greater awareness on

the need for climate action in a more concerted way. The last paper in this collection by Suresh Kumar is an attempt to study the availability and reliability of existing data on climate change in India; and to identify data-gaps; to develop a framework for a detailed data gathering system for climate change, which is internationally comparable. The paper points out that Indian data system on climate change is in its infancy stage. Though the data availability is inevitable to arrive at policy conclusion on stopping or mitigating the impact of climate change, especially in the agricultural and health sectors, we are still in short of adequate mechanism in place to catering to the needs. This is on account of the fact that the issue has attracted the attention of policy makers very recently and further the gravity of the issue is yet to be properly understood. It is true that the Central Statistical Organization is developing a full-fledged mechanism to gather all required information on the topic with respect to India as well as put together information available on the topic from different sources in one place rather more comprehensively.

Conclusively, all the papers in this volume have tried to raise important issues concerning water, health, gender, carbon trading and data gaps in understanding climate change impacts drawing evidence from Asian countries and literature. The volume has raised a variety of policy questions relating to climate change adaptation and mitigation. There is no doubt that climate change is a reality now, but government and communities have to work together to reduce its adverse impacts on vulnerable sections of our society. Better understanding has to be built and quality of information base also has to be improved to have informed policy intervention. Inter national community has to rise above the narrow parochial interests to work for welfare of all stakeholders, especially the most vulnerable ones. The challenges facing climate change adaption and mitigation are multifarious and have to be met squarely by all stakeholders.

References

Bronwyn (2010). "Warming Globe Cools Hope", Development Asia, April-June, 36-43. FAO (2009), Review of Evidence on Drylands Pastoral Systems and Climate Change, Rome.

Sadoff, Claudia and Mike Muller (2009), "Water Management, Water Scarcity and Climate Change Adaptation: Early Impacts and Essential Responses", GWP. TEC Background Paper No. 14, August.

WFP (2009), Climate Change and Hunger, Rome.