More than 100 million people from Asia Pacific countries including the Philippines may fall into extreme poverty by 2030 without climate-oriented development in the region, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Unescap) warned. According to a working paper titled “The Economics of Climate Change in the Asia-Pacific Region”, this scenario will wipe out the gains in poverty reduction achieved over the last decades. Future losses from disasters are also measured in the report by the average annual loss (AAL) metric, which represents the amount countries should set aside each year to cope with future hazards. AAL estimates show that 18 countries in the Asia-Pacific region have a ratio of above 10 percent relative to social spending, and range up to 76 percent.

Caraballo, M. U. (2016, December 2). Climate-oriented dev't to save millions from poverty. Manila Times, p. A2.