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openhagen and Jakarta may be worlds apart geographically, but what takes place in the Danish capital just one month from now when negotiators meet to hammer out a new global climate change agreement will define the landscape of Indonesia's largest city for decades to come.

Jakarta is in many respects a symbol of some of the great challenges faced by half of the world's population living in Asia and the Pacific.

This city of nearly 12 million people has vastly expanded its services and borders over the past two decades. But as anyone reading this while stuck in traffic can attest, its extraordinary growth has come at a cost: heavy pollution from the massive upsurge in cars and buses and an infrastructure stretched to capacity. Despite the adverse environmental consequences, the city continues to attract new migrants who come in search of opportunity.

Earlier this year, it was reported that if the vehicle growth rate in Jakarta continues to hover at about 10 percent annually without a major shift in modes of transportation, the city is expected to be paralyzed by total gridlock within five years.

Development patterns like this repeated across Asia have made the burning of fossil fuels for transport the fastest growing source of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

Three new studies funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) underscore just how drastically rising temperatures now threaten the region's food, fuel, and people. Without active policy responses, these impacts will block progress in achieving inclusive and sustainable growth in developing Asia.

Led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), US; The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), India; and the University of Adelaide, Australia, the reports depict a continent locked in an intensifying, climate change-induced struggle over land, water and energy resources.

Viewed individually, each report contains measured warnings about the consequences of rising temperatures for food production, energy security, and migration patterns in the decades to come.

Taken together, the reports present a deeply troubling confluence of skyrocketing food prices and volatile energy supplies and costs, which will contribute to the ongoing and massive rural to urban migration that has already created more than a dozen mega-cities, like Jakarta, across Asia.

The agriculture report warns that food security is at risk from climate change. Some 2.2 billion Asians rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, which will be increasingly threatened by falling crop yields caused by floods, droughts, erratic rainfall and other climate change impacts. Current climate models indicate a sharp rise in food prices by 2050 - pushing the cost of rice up by 29-37 percent, maize by 58-97 percent and wheat by 81-102 percent.

Hikes in the price of food will be felt, first and foremost, by the poor, and especially poor women in rural areas, given their dependence on subsistence crops, and their limited access to resources, and levers of power.

The energy report assesses how the fossil fuels that are driving Asia's remarkable development - coal, oil and gas - are also, paradoxically, driving up the greenhouse gas emissions that threaten the region's continued growth. It also finds that Asia's energy vulnerability is rising, with access, affordability and quality all under increasing threat. And demand continues to grow: Of the 1.6 billion people in the world who lack access to electricity, about 60 percent live in the Asia and Pacific region.

The adverse impacts of climate change on Asia's agriculture and energy security are also contributing to conditions that are likely to result in mass migration. According to the migration report, a disproportionate number of global "hot spots" - areas at high risk from climate change hazards - are in the Asia and Pacific region. The criteria for defining these areas include vulnerability to sea level rise, water stress, flooding and cyclones - definitions that are all too familiar to a country like Indonesia with more than 17,000 islands and 80,000 kilometers of coastline.

Which brings us back to Jakarta: A great, ironic tragedy is that most of those migrating to the Indonesian capital are moving into, rather than away from, a climatic hot spot, for Jakarta's coastal location and dense population make it particularly vulnerable to climate change.

And the story of Jakarta is replicated in mega cities across Asia -the region that will likely suffer earliest and most if a comprehensive and effective climate change agreement is not reached in Copenhagen in December.

So what messages can the delegates to the Copenhagen climate change talks draw from Asia as they negotiate a new global compact to address this challenge? How best can the needs of a city like Jakarta be reflected in a new climate change accord?

Asia needs US$3-4 billion in annual investments from 2010 to 2050 for agricultural research, irrigation improvements, and other climate-resilient rural infrastructure. It needs all the knowledge, technical expertise and financing levels that the world can provide. Indonesia's president has committed the country to a 26 percent reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, compared to its business as usual scenario, if financial and technical support is forthcoming.

Asia is blessed with an array of resources that can be converted into clean energy alternatives - including opportunities for expanded hydropower, geothermal, solar, biomass, and wind power. Large funding sources will be needed to tap these resources and promote parallel energy efficiency improvements. But the savings potential from many of these shifts can be huge - as high as 45 percent for the industry, transportation, and building sectors.

And Asia needs to fully factor climate change considerations into wider development planning, with more effective schemes to divert investment and economic activity away from environmentally vulnerable areas, to promote sustainable transport and a host of other urgent measures.

By continuing to follow the Bali Road Map agreed upon two years ago, we hope that the delegates heading to Copenhagen in December will agree upon measures that can ensure Jakarta's future vitality. Negotiators in need of inspiration might do well to take a hard look at the challenges faced by the city - and the remedies available to avert the looming crisis.