Warming collapses the Indian economy and spills over to India-Pakistan war

NEW DELHI: Asia is facing the brunt of climate change and will see severe stress on water resources and food-grain production in the future, increasing the risk of armed conflict among India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and China, the latest report of a UN panel has warned. UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in its report assessing impacts of climate change on human health, settlements and natural resources released on Monday, carried a dire warning. "The worst is yet to come," it said, if no measures are taken to curb the ill-effects of global warming. India, like other developing economies, may lose up to 1.7% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) if the annual mean temperature rises by 1 degree Celsius compared to pre-industrialization level, hitting the poor the most. The report also predicts an increase in extreme weather events such as last year's flash floods in Uttarakhand and cyclone Phailin in Odisha if steps are not taken to control the rise in temperature. "Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change," R K Pachauri, IPCC chairman said while making the report public in Yokohama, Japan.