Responses to Climate Change — Who Is Responsible? A Conclusion

The impacts of climate change (CC) are real and palpable, posing threats on several fronts, including human development and the sustainability of civilisations. It has been agreed by all authors that CC impacts are profound, long-lasting, cross-border and difficult to contain at a location or within a country. The major impacts of CC identified in this book include (i) loss of life, human security and human displacement, (ii) ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss, (iii) economic loss and reduction of economic growth rate and (iv) national and regional security. These have been witnessed as there have been sea-level rises, glacial retreats, adverse weather patterns, flooding, shrinking freshwater resources, desertification and loss of bio-diversity at an alarming rate. The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) (2011) study has shown that the Hindkush-Himalaya region is a hotspot of global warming, recording a temperature rise of 0.6-1.3 °C within a period of 30 years. CC and its adverse effects are pushing humans to a point where we are living in a precarious condition (Regmi and Dinanath, 2011). Thus, as Huq and Reid (2006) also identified, CC is now considered to be one of the major environmental problems challenging society and the natural world. There has been no major difference in terms of the impacts of CC in Asian countries and others. Yet Asian countries are prone to disaster due to their geographical, social and cultural uniqueness, which makes the battle against CC and environmental degradation even more challenging.