“Climate change knows no borders. Our shared geography demands shared solutions, from coordinated disaster management to trans-border environmental policies,” said Indian journalist Ashish Gupta. He was speaking at the recently concluded World Climate Conference (COP-29) in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Gupta was re-elected president of the South Asian Climate Change Journalists Forum, headquartered in Dhaka. With national chapters in each member country, the Forum aims to strengthen cross-border climate journalism and advocacy. At Baku, office bearers across the region discussed strategies to address climate issues.

The unprecedented smog stretching from Delhi to Lahore and the earlier devastating floods in Nepal are reminders that South Asia is rapidly becoming ground zero for the escalating global climate crisis.

The region, home to nearly a quarter of the world’s population, is grappling with increasing environmental disasters. As the Himalayan glaciers melt at an alarming rate and monsoons become more erratic, coastal areas of Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka face unprecedented flooding. The scene of Nepal rivers overflowing and submerging villages is mirrored across South Asia, as millions are made homeless by the unforgiving realities of climate change.

Nearly 1.8 million people from Bangladesh, 528,000 from India, and 110,000 from Nepal have been displaced over the last years due to climate-induced disasters, reports The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. The frequency of flash floods, exacerbated by deforestation and rapid infrastructure expansion, has uprooted entire communities.

In May, Cyclone Remal devastated parts of Bangladesh, killing at least 16 according to UN reports. Early monsoon rains in India, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka affected over 15 million children, requiring coordinated humanitarian responses. The UNICEF South Asia region humanitarian situation report estimates that 48 million children will require humanitarian support this year, with peaks during the monsoon season.

Meanwhile, drought and water shortages plague parts of India and Pakistan, and sea-level rise threatens entire nations like the Maldives. The humanitarian crisis is escalating as families face not only the destruction of their homes but also the loss of livelihoods and security.

Southasia is at a crossroads. Its shared vulnerabilities—rooted in geography and compounded by weak infrastructure, outdated disaster management systems, and inconsistent environmental policies—push it closer to environmental collapse.

Rising oceans an existential threat

In Bangladesh, where much of the population lives in low-lying coastal areas, rising sea levels have already submerged vast tracts of farmland, forcing farmers and fisherfolk to migrate inland. India, too, has seen increased displacement, particularly in the Sundarbans, where saltwater intrusion has devastated ocean cultivation and agriculture.

These crises potentially lead to a loss of up to one-third of agricultural GDP in countries like Bangladesh due to extreme weather events like cyclones and flooding, notes a report by the Asian Development Bank.

The Maldives lie on the frontline of climate change, with about 80% of the nation comprising nearly 1,200 coral islands barely a metre above sea level. The sea levels could rise by as much as 1.1 metres by the year 2100, warns the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a UN body.

There are significant environmental concerns around a development project launched in 2021 by the Indian government that aims to establish a trans-shipment hub and expand infrastructure on Nicobar Island in the Bay of Bengal. Climate activists and local communities fear that the project will destroy large sections of pristine forests, threaten the region's biodiversity, and aggravate the ecological balance of the Indian Ocean.

Such projects “prioritise short-term economic gains over long-term environmental sustainability, deepen existing inequalities and worsen the climate crisis,” says environmental activist Melani Gunathilaka from Sri Lanka, a panellist at a virtual discussion hosted by the Southasia Peace Action Network last month..

However, the crisis extends far beyond this archipelago.

Johnathan F. Fathal, a climate activist from Micronesia, a subregion of Oceania comprising some 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean, highlights how large-scale projects affect the broader ecosystem.

There’s a significant decline in fish populations, “and with it, the livelihoods of coastal communities are disappearing,” he told Sapan News in Boston. “Saltwater intrusion, worsened by unplanned infrastructural developments, is already destroying ocean-based agriculture, which many island nations rely on”.

Several passionate climate activists from different South Asian countries also met with Sapan News, like Nousheen Zoarder and Ummay Marzan Jui from Bangladesh, Dr. Rabina G. Rasaily from Nepal, and Hira Wajahat Malik from Pakistan.

Fathal advocates the utilisation of G.I.S. mapping, a technology that uses geographic data to monitor environmental changes, to ensure better land-use planning and resource allocation in vulnerable areas. He argues that integrating such technology into regional policies can help countries track environmental degradation and develop more sustainable development models.

Cities across India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh consistently rank among the most polluted in the world, states the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report, 2023, with toxic air causing widespread health issues and degrading the environment. The pollution problem is not confined to national boundaries; pollutants frequently spread across borders, affecting neighbouring countries’ air quality.

Bangladeshi climate activist Nousheen Zoarder adds another layer to this discussion, pointing out the geo-political implications of climate change.

"Trans-border pollution, air pollution, and soil degradation are making it impossible for nations to thrive independently," she says. "One country’s environmental policy directly impacts its neighbours.”

The introduction of GMO crops in response to soil pollution is causing new problems, including adverse effects on reproductive health in women, she adds. “These are global issues that require cross-border solutions."

Climate change refugees

For millions, the term "climate refugee" is no longer abstract but a lived reality. Bangladeshi climate journalist Ummay Marzan Jui explains that this wave of displacement is reshaping the region's social fabric. With coastal populations moving to urban areas in search of work and shelter, Bangladesh is witnessing an internal migration crisis as the cities are ill-equipped to handle this influx.

“These people are not officially recognized as refugees, but they are victims of climate change,” Jui told Sapan News, predicting that their numbers will grow as environmental conditions worsen.

This migration impacts neighbouring countries, such as India and Myanmar, causing tensions as displaced individuals seek refuge across borders. The failure to address this transnational problem threatens not only regional stability but also the future of millions of climate refugees with nowhere to go.

Many of them come from marginalised communities, including Dalits, indigenous peoples, and landless farmers, who are already vulnerable to social and economic exclusion.

There is an urgent need to formulate inclusive policies, says Nepali researcher and development worker Dr. Rabina G. Rasaily. “Climate change disproportionately impacts marginalised groups.

“Dalit communities, already facing caste discrimination, are often the first to be affected by environmental catastrophes and the last to receive aid,” she emphasised. “We need Dalit-friendly climate policies that account for their specific vulnerabilities.”

The climate crisis is also reshaping the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Climate change is creating new business barriers, particularly in rural areas where outdated weather prediction systems “make it nearly impossible for farmers as well as entrepreneurs to plan ahead,” research scholar Hira Wajahat Malik outlined.

Malik warned that these communities are becoming more vulnerable to economic collapse without updated technology and a reliable forecasting system.

Highlighting the social impacts of climate change, Malik notes that as traditional livelihoods disappear, new forms of labour exploitation are emerging, particularly in informal economies. Proactive policies to create sustainable jobs are needed to prevent the human toll of the climate crisis from continuing to mount.

As climate change exacerbates Southasia’s vulnerability, human activities like deforestation, illegal land acquisition, and unplanned urban expansion catalyse natural disasters. Human-caused floods, fueled by poor infrastructure planning in disaster-prone areas, illegal acquisition of land, and forest loss for development, have increased flash floods in India and Nepal, as Dr. Rasaily points out.

Regional cooperation agreements

Regional bodies like the SAARC, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, have the potential to foster cooperation on climate adaptation, disaster preparedness, and trans-border pollution control. However, geopolitical tensions, particularly between India and Pakistan, hinder progress.

As climate activists and journalists point out, no country can solve this alone. What’s needed are regional climate agreements that focus on disaster management and long-term sustainability. This includes investing in renewable energy, improving infrastructure in disaster-prone areas, and creating policies that protect the most vulnerable communities.

Will South Asia rise to meet this challenge? Or will the region’s response to climate change continue to be reactive rather than proactive? This is the existential question facing South Asia, a region that must come together to combat the greatest challenge of our time.

(The author is an Indian journalist and former Fulbright-Nehru Master’s scholar at Rutgers University. Views expressed are personal. By special arrangement with Sapan)