Asia has few plans yet to deal with rising seas

By Neil Chatterjee

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asia's population is most at risk from rising sea levels and more powerful storms, but few countries in the region have made detailed plans to deal with the hazards their coastlines and ports would face.

Scientists have predicted a dire future of human-induced global warming causing rising sea-levels that could drown low-lying areas and hit Asia hard, though experts agreed in a U.N. report on Friday fighting climate change was affordable.

"In most of Asia, if you put that on a list of priorities it falls off the bottom of the page," said Steve Williams, head of Energy Solutions, which does consultancy work on industry services such as ports and infrastructure.

One in 10 people, mainly in Asia, live in coastal areas most at risk, an international study published last month found.

The researchers said many countries cannot afford Dutch-style dykes but urged governments to make billion-dollar policy shifts in long-term planning to encourage more settlements inland.

Limiting global warming to a 2 degrees centigrade rise would cost just 0.12 percent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with the technology available, a U.N. climate change report said on Friday after days of wrangling at talks in Bangkok.

The Thai capital could be under water in 20 years because of rising seas from global warming and subsidence, a top Thai climate expert, who warned of a tsunami years before the 2004 disaster, told Reuters in an interview this week.

Smith Dharmasaroja, head of Thailand's National Disaster Warning Centre, said the city of 10 million people was sinking at an alarming rate and to avert disaster it needed to construct a massive sea wall. He said the government did not pay attention.