Asia climate disasters displace 42 million

The Asian Development Bank said this on Tuesday in a report calling for swift action to avert future crises.Asia and the Pacific is the global area most prone to natural disasters, both in terms of the absolute number of disasters and of populations affected, said the report launched in Bangkok, which was itself affected by flooding last year.About 31.8 million people in the region were displaced by climate-related disasters and extreme weather in 2010 -- a particularly bad year -- including more than 10 million in Pakistan owing to massive flooding.A further 10.7 million were forced to flee their homes last year, it said, warning that such events will become more frequent with climate change.While many of those displaced returned to their homes as conditions improved, others were less fortunate, struggling to build new lives elsewhere after incurring substantial personal losses, ADB vice president Bindu Lohani said in a foreword to the report, released at an Asian climate forum.The bank says Asia has six of the 10 countries most vulnerable to climate change, with Bangladesh and India in the top two places on a list that also includes Nepal, the Philippines, Afghanistan and Myanmar.--AFP