Climate mapping of East Asia

Climate experts have acknowledged that the climate in East Asia—a geopolitical space consisting of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Mongolia, has been getting warmer since the 1960s and there is a wider prediction that mean temperatures across the region will rise by 1.9 to 2.6 Celsius by 2050. The rate of increase in mean temperatures is likely to be greater in the north of the region—Mongolia and northern People’s Republic of China (PRC)—than in the south. A 2013 Study funded by the Asian Development Bank and Korea International Cooperation Agency examined how strategies for adapting to embedded climate change over the next 40 years can be combined with measures to lower and reverse the growth in carbon dioxide emissions in East Asia.The study hypothesized that such adaptation will eventually minimize the costs of climate change in the next 40 years. However, it further conceded that adaptation cannot be the only response to the rising climate change—and, thus, its costs—is expected to accelerate after 2050 if there is a proportionate increase in concentration of greenhouse gases. The costs of reducing carbon dioxide emissions in East Asia can, it was argued, be controlled by focusing on the most efficient abatement options, particularly those which overlap with measures designed to improve local environmental conditions.Experts agree thatEast Asia needs to shift towards a model of economic growth focused on low carbon emissions and more efficient use of resources by establishing targets for improvements in energy efficiency and making investments in clean energy. Additional investments will further be required to ensure that infrastructure and communities are resilient to future climate risks. It is accepted that a functional and thriving climate network to promote collaborative research on climate change would help individual countries of East Asia to counter this rising menace.