Helping Firms and People Help Themselves: South Asia's Response to Climate Change

The book examines how South Asia can best adapt to climate change. The region's governments are undertaking large-scale programs to build climate-resilient infrastructure and disaster preparedness systems. However, fiscal constraints limit how much public investment can be channeled into these climate change adaptations. It will be important to facilitate adaptation by the private sector and maximize the effectiveness of public spending on adaptation. The report will therefore explore the following questions: Given likely climate change scenarios, what could be the aggregate impact of adaptation on the region's development path? How do households, firms, and farms adapt to climate change? Which government policies can best support cost-effective climate adaptation by household and firms, and which can reduce the need for costly private adaptation?