IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007
Climate Change 2007: Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability

10.2 Current sensitivity and vulnerability

10.2.1 Asia: regional characteristics

Asia is the most populous continent (Figure 10.1). Its total population in 2002 was reported to be about 3,902 million, of which almost 61% is rural and 38.5% lives within 100 km of the coast (Table 10.1). The coastline of Asia is 283,188 km long (Duedall and Maul, 2005). In this report, Asia is divided into seven sub-regions, namely North Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, Tibetan Plateau, East Asia, South Asia and South-East Asia (for further details on boundaries of these sub-regions see Table 10.5).

Figure 10.1

Figure 10.1. Location of countries covered under Asia included in this chapter.

North Asia, located in the Boreal climatic zone, is the coldest region of the northern hemisphere in winter (ACIA, 2005). One of the world’s largest and oldest lakes, Baikal, located in this region contains as much as 23,000 km3 of freshwater and holds nearly 20% of the world surface freshwater resources (Izrael and Anokhin, 2000). Central and West Asia include several countries of predominantly arid and semi-arid region. Tibetan Plateau can be divided into the eastern part (forest region), the northern part (open grassland), and the southern and central part (agricultural region). East Asia stretches in the east-west direction to about 5,000 km and in the north-south to about 3,000 km including part of China, Japan and Korea. South Asia is physiographically diverse and ecologically rich in natural and crop-related biodiversity. The region has five of the 20 megacities of the world (UN-HABITAT, 2004). South-East Asia is characterised by tropical rainforest, monsoon climates with high and constant rainfall, heavily-leached soils, and diverse ethnic groups. Table 10.1 lists the key socio-economic and natural resource features of the countries of Asia (WRI, 2003; FAO, 2004a, b, c; World Bank, 2005).

Table 10.1. Key information on socio-economics and natural resources of the Asian countries

Country Total population (1,000 inhab) 2004 2004 GDP per capita (constant US$2000) Land area* (1,000ha) 2002 Arable land and perm-anent crops (1,000 ha) 2002 Arable land (1,000 ha) 2002 Total forest area, 2005 (1,000ha) Percent of forest cover (FAO, 2005) Natural RWR**, 2002 (per capita m3Water res-ources: total renewable per capita (actual) (m3/inhab/yr) 1998 to 2002 Average production of cereals, 2005 (1,000t) Annual fish and fishery products (kg/ capita) (2002) 
Reference 
Afghanistan 24926  65209  8045  7910  867 1.3 2790  2835  4115  
Bahrain 739  13852  71  6  2  164  0  
Bangladesh 149664  402  13017  8429  7997  871 6.7 8444  8418  41586  11  
Bhutan 2325  695  4700  128  108  3195 68 43214  43379  127  
Brunei Darussalam 366  527  17  12  278 52.8 24286  1  
Cambodia 14482  339  17652  3807  3700  10447 59.2 34561  34476  4458  28  
China 1320892  1323  932743  154353  142618  197290 21.2 2186  2172  427613  26  
India 1081229  538  297319  169800  160000  67701 22.8 1822  1807  235913  5  
Indonesia 222611  906  181157  33700  20500  88495 48.8 13046  13070  65998  21  
Iran, Islamic Rep 69788  1885  163620  17088  15020  11075 6.8 1900  2020  21510  5  
Iraq 25856  43737  6019  5750  822 1.9 3111  3077  3934  
Israel 6560  17788  2171  427  341  171 8.3 265  265  341  22  
Japan 127800  38609  36450  4762  4418  24868 68.2 3372  3373  12426  66  
Jordan 5614  1940  8824  400  295  83 0.9 169  165  83  5  
Kazakhstan 15403  1818  269970  22799  22663  3337 1.2 6839  7086  13768  4  
Korea, DPR 22776  12041  2900  2700  0.3 3415  3422  4461  8  
Korea, Republic 47951  12752  9873  1863  1663  869 4.5 1471  1470  6776  59  
Kuwait 2595  17674  1782  18  15  16142 69.9 10  8  3  9  
Kyrgyz Republic 5208  325  19180  1363  1308  136 13.3 4078  4062  1625  1  
Laos 5787  378  23080  1001  920  20890 63.6 60318  60327  2560  15  
Lebanon 3708  5606  1023  313  170  10252 6.5 1220  1226  145  12  
Malaysia 24876  4290  32855  7585  1800  32222 49 25178  24202  2290  57  
Mongolia 2630  462  156650  1200  1198  13451  13599  75  0  
Myanmar 50101  67658  10611  9862  3636 25.4 21358  21403  25639  19  
Nepal 25725  231  14300  2480  2360  8703  8542  7577  1  
Oman 2935  8961  30950  81  38  1902 2.5 364  356  6  
Pakistan 157315  566  77088  22280  21608  29437 65 2812  1485  32972  2  
Papua New Guinea 5836  604  45286  870  220  7162 24 143394  11  
Philippines 81408  1085  29817  10700  5700  6093  6096  19865  29  
Qatar 619  1100  21  18  6265 63.5 88  7  
Russia - E. of Urals  142397  2286  1638098 125300 123465  808790 47.9 31354  31283  76420  19  
Saudi Arabia 24919  8974  214969  3793  3600  2728 1.3 111  102  2590  7  
Singapore 4315  24164  67  2  1  3.4 143  0  
Sri Lanka 19218  962  6463  1916  916  1933 29.9 2592  2644  3172  22  
Syrian Arab Rep 18223  1115  18378  5421  4593  461 2.5 1541  1511  5620  3  
Tajikistan 6298  223  13996  1057  930  410 2.9 2587  2579  859  0  
Thailand 63465  2356  51089  19367  15867  14520 28.4 6371  6591  31490  31  
Turkey 72320  3197  76963  26579  23994  10175 13.2 3344  3037  34570  7  
Turkmenistan 4940  46993  1915  1850  4127 8.8 5015  5156  3035  3  
UAE 3051  8360  266  75  312 3.7 56  51  0  24  
Uzbekistan 26479  639  42540  4827  4484  3295 1968  1961  6182  0  
Vietnam 82481  502  32549  8813  6600  12931 39.7 11109  11102  39841  18  
Yemen 20733  534  52797  1669  1538  549 212  554  6  

* Land area: total land area excluding area under inland water bodies.

** RWR: renewable water resources.

Data sources:

a: http://faostat.fao.org/site/429/default.aspx

b: http://earthtrends.wri.org/searchable_db/index.php?theme=5&variable_ID=640&action=select_countries

c: http://faostat.fao.org/site/418/default.aspx

d: www.fao.org/forestry/foris/webview/forestry2/index.jsp?siteId=6833&sitetreeId=32006&langId=1&geoId=0

e: www.fao.org/ag/agl/aglw/aquastat/dbase/index.htm

f: http://faostat.fao.org/site/408/DesktopDefault.aspx?PageID=408

g: http://earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/data_tables/ene5_2005.pdf#search=%22WRI%20Resource%20Consumption%202005%22