Malaysia, Philippines may see 46% fall in GDP due to climate change: report

[superadmin]

GENEVA – “Climate change is here, we need to act now,” said the chief economist of Swiss Reinsurance Company (SwissRe), warning of sharp global economic losses.

The world’s economy, especially poorer countries, will pay the “highest price” if no action is taken on a global level, said Jerome Haegeli, also managing editor of a report published recently, in an interview with the Xinhua news agency yesterday.

Haegeli said his team concluded that the global economy might lose 10% of its global GDP by 2048 if temperatures rise at the current speed, with countries in the Global South more affected than in the North.

Countries in Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia and the Philippines, are “extremely vulnerable” to climate change, and could lose up to 46% of their GDP by the end of the century if temperatures increase by 3°C compared with the 1800s, said Haegeli.


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