Floods, storms and heat projected to cost SE Asia $34 billion per year

BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Falling crop yields, damage to infrastructure and heat-related illnesses brought on by climate change could cost the four Southeast Asian countries of the lower Mekong River basin $34 billion per year, researchers say.

Southeast Asia is one of the regions hardest hit by the impacts of climate change, such as floods, typhoons, droughts and saltwater intrusion - when seawater flows up rivers, threatening agriculture and infrastructure.