http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48679

By Ron Corben

BANGKOK, Oct 1 (IPS) - The rising challenge of climate change has raised fears of growing conflicts as the impact of more extreme weather triggers food water scarcities across the Asia region.

The concerns have added to a growing sense of urgency in the ongoing 12- day climate change talks in Bangkok, the latest in a series of negotiations that will lead to the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in December, where a comprehensive treaty is expected to be adopted, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012.

Mark Rosegrant, a director with the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, said the combination of rising food prices, water scarcity and access to land are expected to add to social pressures.

Rosegrant raised the spectre of potential instability. "It's going to be neighbours against each other," he said.

As the environment deteriorates, there could be "very significant social deterioration and the loosening of the social bonds as well," he added.

The Asia Development Bank (AsDB), in a series of new reports on climate, energy and migration released Wednesday, said food security is now threatened by falling crop yields caused by floods, droughts, erratic rainfall and other climate change impacts.

It warned that food prices could increase sharply, with staples such as rice rising by more than 30 percent, maize by over 50 percent, and wheat by as much as 100 percent over the next four decades, with South Asia expected to be the hardest hit by drought.

The AsDB said agriculture is especially vulnerable to climatic change, with over 2.2 billion people in Asia relying on agriculture for their livelihoods.

"Climate change is threatening food production systems and therefore the livelihoods and food security of billions of people who depend on agriculture in the Asia and Pacific region," the report said.

The report added that agricultural activities release significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, with Asia and the Pacific accounting for 37 percent of the world's total emissions from agricultural production. China alone makes up more than 18 percent of the total.