South Asia must act together or face climate catastrophe: experts

KARACHI:

Climate experts across Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh are urging a renewal of regional cooperation to confront escalating climate threats in South Asia – one of the world's most vulnerable regions – warning that without collective action, extreme heat and severe flooding could soon overwhelm hundreds of millions of lives.

A new World Bank study released this week paints an alarming picture: by 2030, nearly 90% of South Asia's population will be exposed to extreme heat, while almost one in four people will face severe flooding driven by climate-induced disasters.

The report says the region's dense population, rising temperatures and exposed geography leave it acutely at risk.

"These findings demand adaptation mechanisms to foster climate resilience," said Imran Saqib Khalid, a climate governance expert based in Pakistan's capital Islamabad.

He argued that the crisis could become a rare opportunity to bridge regional divides. "Climate can indeed be a unifying factor in an era when there is plenty of antagonism to go around."

Khalid highlighted the lack of a unified early warning infrastructure.

"India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, for example, are affected by monsoons. Having an early warning system that cuts across political boundaries and speaks to our individual vulnerabilities could be very, very helpful," he told Anadolu.

Echoing his view, Shafi Mohammad Tareq, a professor of environmental science at Jahangirnagar University in Dhaka, warned that soaring temperatures and climate shocks pose major threats to human health and environmental security across the region.

"Climate change is a global issue, so isolated action will hardly work. We can address it through regional cooperation in mitigation and adaptation," he said.

With most of Bangladesh's rivers originating in India – and similar interdependencies between India and Pakistan – he said the region's shared geography makes coordination unavoidable.

According to the World Bank report, an average of "about 67 million people per year have been affected by natural disasters in South Asia since 2010, more than in any other region in the world."

It cites flooding as "a particularly common weather-related hazard in the region, with 40% of land area having been flooded during 2000-18."

The report warns that "extreme rainfall and flooding are expected to become more frequent and intense with rising global temperatures, with 22% (462 million) of the population projected to face floods exceeding 15 centimeters depth by 2030."

Despite shared risks, experts acknowledge that strained ties between South Asian nations remain the biggest barrier.

Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, a policy expert in Pakistan, said South Asia lacks technical coordination even as it faces recurring heatwaves, increasingly destructive floods, prolonged droughts, tropical cyclones and glacial lake outburst floods.

He noted that the current atmosphere – including recent political tensions in Bangladesh and the flare-up between Pakistan and India in May – hinders official collaboration. Still, he insisted that climate cooperation remains possible in limited but critical areas