IMF’s Horror Predictions: 190 Million People in ASEAN Lives Threatened by Climate Change

IMF IMF Implementing Director Kristalina Lihatva (Photo: Capture Youtube screen of the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries)

JAKARTA - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the middle of this week reminded countries in Southeast Asia about the impact of climate change. It was stated that climate change could bring negative impacts to the lives of people in the ASEAN region.

"In the future, as many as 190 million people in ASEAN will live below sea level," said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva when speaking at the Indonesia Sustainability Forum 2023 on Thursday, September 7.

According to Kristalina, this number is very large when compared to communities in Europe.

“For me this is the same as the entire population of Germany, Italy, France and Spain. "So you can imagine that all of them live (live/live under threat) below sea level," she said.

Kristalina added that the impact of climate change could also spread to the economic sector. This occurs as a result of productive activities being disrupted due to natural factors.

"You need to know that 60 percent of these countries (in ASEAN) are at risk in terms of (the formation of) gross domestic product (GDP)," she stressed.

Furthermore, Kristalina said that the effects of climate change are encouraging more disasters to occur in the region. According to the IMF's calculations, ASEAN countries have to bear economic losses of USD 100 billion per year from the impact of the disaster.

Apart from that, a number of ASEAN countries are also known to be on the list of countries most vulnerable to climate change.

"This makes four countries in ASEAN, Myanmar, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, among the top 10 countries with the highest level of climate risk in the world," said Kristalina.