Overview of the Climate Affairs Program

Findings from

The First Training Workshop

South and Southeast Asian Region

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

25-28 February 2002

Zafar Adeel and Michael Glantz


The global concerns about climate change are also linked to the more conventional ones about the atmospheric environment: air pollution, stratospheric ozone depletion, transboundary atmospheric pollution, and acid rain. It is thought that extreme climate events like El Niño and La Niña will increase in severity and frequency as a consequence of global warming. There has also been a sharp increase in sustained scientific, governmental, public and media interest in climate and weather, particularly during the 1990s. This is perhaps linked to a number climate-related extreme events: multiple El Niño and La Niña events; blockbuster hurricanes (Andrew, Mitch, Georges, and Floyd); destructive typhoons; deadly floods and mudslides (China, Venezuela, Honduras, Yemen, Vietnam, eastern and western Europe, and the USA); numerous and widespread droughts; the spread to mid-latitudes of climate-related infectious diseases (malaria, encephalitis, and dengue fever); the occurrence of several of the world’s hottest years on record.