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Summary
Some parts of the world are especially vulnerable to the extreme effects of climate change.

More than one billion people live in deltas, semi-arid lands, and glacier- and snowpack-dependent river basins in Africa and Asia, hot spot regions that are the most vulnerable to climate change.

The Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) built the resilience of vulnerable populations and their livelihoods in these hot spots by supporting collaborative research on climate change adaptation to inform policy and practice. CARIAA took a unique approach by organizing research around four consortia that brought together more than 450 researchers and postgraduate students affiliated with 18 member institutions and more than 40 partner organizations. Each consortium focused on research related to one of the three climate change hot spots in 14 countries in Africa and Asia.

IDRC and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) have partnered to support this program, which closed in 2019. The experience and lessons learned through their earlier joint climate change effort, the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa program (2006-2012), have provided insight and guidance for CARIAA’s mission.

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Climate change hot spots

What do Bira, Chatti, Seydou, and Shilpi have in common? They are four of the more than one billion people living in hot spot regions — deltas, semi-arid lands, and glacier and snowpack-dependent river basins in Africa and Asia — that are most vulnerable to climate change.

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With 1.5°C warming, at least a quarter of the ice on the Himalayan mountains today will be lost, affecting 13% of the world’s population. Learn more

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Present and future illustrations of melting glaciers

The impact in low-lying deltas will not be measurable until around the 2040s, when the area of land under inundation is expected to be about 2.5 times larger. Learn more

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Present and future illustrations of the effects of rising water on a levey

Semi-arid lands will also experience high variations in precipitation, with significant impacts on power production, agriculture and health. Learn more

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Present and future illustrations of the effects of a drought on a river

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