The Philippines was hit by the most powerful typhoon recorded worldwide in 2018, affecting more than 250,000 people across the country. Japan was hit by extreme weather events in 2018 where rainfall caused damage worth more than $7В billion, and a heatwave led to 138 fatalities and more than 70,000 people requiring hospitalization. 22 In addition, Japan, the Philippines and India ranked among the five countries most affected in 2018.

According to the Global Climate Risk Index 2020, seven Asian countries (Myanmar, the Philippines, Pakistan, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Thailand and Nepal) are identified among the 10 nations most affected by climate risk from 1999 to 2018. In Asia, awareness has grown about the risks of climate change, partly in response to the devastating experiences of natural disasters across the region in recent years. 21 As the Paris Agreement adopts a bottom-up approach whereby each government sets its own contribution targets, the NDCs are a means to demonstrate and measure whether governments are serious about tackling climate change. GovernmentsвЂ™ commitments to mitigate GHG emissions are described in the NDCs submitted under the Paris Agreement. Country-level climate commitments andВ initiatives

There is wide variation in how prepared countries are to tackle climate change across Asia, but carbon neutral policies declared by China, Japan and South Korea in 2020 may help drive re gional efforts.

Quickshift bilateral integration