Coastlines have traditionally been the starting and terminal points of trade corridors for centuries. Modern-day coastlines not only hold ports and fishing fleets but also energy terminals and, in most cases, large cities. Interlocked climatic and environmental changes have resulted in rising sea levels, hard-hitting coastal storms, eroding deltas and tsunamis, exponentially increasing the risk to the coastlines. The eventual loss does not remain restricted to the coasts; it creeps inland in the form of disrupted supply chains, inflated food prices and soaring public debt. The more is the infrastructural growth along the coastline, more are the stakes.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) released its Asia-Pacific Climate Report 2026, specific to coastal risks and resilience, on 21st October. This piece is a précis of a detailed first regional assessment of coastal hazards and resilience across all thirty of ADB’s coastal developing member countries. It finds that there is still much required to be done for the region’s coastal future. The decisions governments take now- what, where and when to develop, how all this is to be financed and who has a say- will decide the future of coastlines’ role in regional prosperity.

The report treats the coast as the base of economic growth. More than 400 million people in these countries live within ten kilometres of the sea, and coastal areas produce about USD 7 trillion in output each year. The report describes this phenomenon as a coastal dividend: higher incomes, better jobs and closer access to markets and services. Coral reefs, mangroves, seagrasses, and beaches are in fact termed critical assets for resilience. They reduce wave and storm surge damages and support........

© Daily Times