Economic shocks stemming from rising sea levels pose a long-term risk to the sovereign credit ratings of dozens of countries which have large areas at risk of submersion, including Vietnam, Egypt, Suriname and the Bahamas, Moody's said on Thursday.
Climate science suggests that sea levels will continue to rise for decades, contributing to increasingly frequent natural disasters such as storm surges, floods and cyclones, the credit rating agency said in a report.
"The economic and social repercussions of lost income, damage to assets, a loss of life, health issues and forced migration from the sudden events related to sea level rise are immediate," Moody's said.
"Vulnerability to extreme events related to sea level rise can also undermine investment."
Farming, tourism and trade are all threatened by rising sea levels, especially in countries with a large proportion of land and people at risk of submersion, including island states like the Philippines, Fiji and the Maldives.
While high-income economies, such as Japan and the Netherlands, are also exposed, they have countermeasures in place that mean their credit ratings are unlikely to be materially impacted, Moody's said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Antarctic Study Reveals "Tipping Point" For Runaway Melting Of Ice Sheets Low-Lying Maldives Seeks International Funds To Battle Rising Sea Levels Rising Sea Levels May Force This Country To Move Its Capital Windows Computers Lead To 'Blue Screen Of Death' Due To CrowdStrike Error In 1st Statement After Outage, CrowdStrike CEO Says... Massive Worldwide Microsoft Outage: Flights, Markets, Stock Exchange Down Woman Says Jindal Group Executive Groped Her On Flight, Naveen Jindal Reacts How World Scrambled To Deal With One Of The Biggest IT Crashes: 10 Points Fighting And Kisses: 5 Big Takeaways From Trump's Speech Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.