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© 2021 International Monetary Fund
WP/21/217
IMF Working Paper
Asia and Pacific Department
Climate Change in South Asia: Further Need for Mitigation and Adaptation1
Prepared by Ruchir Agarwal, Vybhavi Balasundharam, Patrick Blagrave, Eugenio Cerutti, Ragnar Gudmundsson, and Racha Mousa
Authorized for distribution by Ranil Salgado
August 2021
IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.
Abstract
The South Asia region is both a large contributor to climate change and also one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change. This paper provides an overview of the region’s vulnerabilities, national committments to mitigate emissions, and national policies to adapt to a changing climate. The paper also discusses policy measures that may be needed to make further progress on both mitigation and adapatation. Our analysis suggests that while substantial progress is being made, there remains scope to adopt a more cohesive strategy to achieve the region’s goals—including by improving the monitoring and tracking of adaptation spending, and by laying the groundwork to equitably increase the effective price of carbon while protecting low-income and vulnerable households in the region.
JEL Classification Numbers: Q20, Q28
Keywords: Climate change, South Asia, Mitigation policies, Adaptation policies
Author’s E-Mail Address: ragarwal@imf.org; vbalasundharam@imf.org; pblagrave@imf.org; ecerutti@imf.org; rgudmundsson@imf.org; rmoussa@imf.org
We are grateful to Cristian Alonso, Mathieu Bellon, Jean Chateau, Arunish Chawla, Chuling Chen, Wenjie Chen, Philippe Karam, Emanuele Massetti, Ranil Salgado, Gregor Schwerhoff, Vimal Thakoor, and the participants of the Regional Forum on Fostering Growth in South Asia (2020, New Delhi) for comments, and to Gulrukh Gamwalla-Khadivi and Shihui Liu for help with the data, figures, and text formatting. A summary of this paper is a chapter of a forthcoming South Asia book, edited by Rahul Anand, Anne-Marie Gulde-Wolf, and Ranil Salgado.