The Most Tropical Country in Asia

Published on May 27, 2024 at 5:40 pm by Aliza Zia in Business, Economy, News

We recently analyzed the 20 Most Tropical Countries in Asia and the challenges faced by them. In this article, we will talk about the most tropical country in Asia.

What Are Tropical Countries?

According to the definition by the National Geographic Society, the tropics are the regions that lie either in the latitude lines 23.5 degrees North of the Equator or 23.5 degrees South of the Equator, in the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn respectively. Globally, the tropical regions account for a huge amount of the earth’s area and have been estimated to cover 36% of the total landmass. The tropics are also the home to a third of the total world population. The closeness of this region to the equator makes them a recipient of almost direct sunlight throughout the year. Therefore, tropical regions are generally warm all year round. The average temperature in the tropics has been noted to be around 25 to 28 degrees Celsius. The countries that lie in the tropics are generally identified as tropical countries.

Challenges Faced by Tropical Countries

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges being faced by the world today. Climate change is not an isolated event, but, is accompanied by issues. Climate change leads to the loss of farming land and labor, a decrease in productivity rates, and changes in infrastructure requirements. All of the resulting factors add up to have an economic and financial impact that has been estimated to snowball over time. On April 17, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) published a report noting that climate change will result in a loss of $38 trillion per year by 2050. Climate change has been estimated to decrease 17% of the global economy’s GDP. A massive reduction in income is expected due to climate change, 19% by 2050. The numbers can vary and be even greater if no immediate steps are taken to curb this growing monster.

Tropical countries are located closer to the equator and receive high amounts of sunlight consistently throughout the year. The worsening climate situation is expected to have serious consequences, especially for tropical countries. A rise in temperatures is going to be the most evident in the tropics, resulting in dire consequences for the countries located within them. The countries with the least responsibility for climate change and weaker economies have been estimated to experience 60% income loss in comparison to high-income stronger economies. These countries also have the least resources to adapt to the challenges of climate change. The income loss in the weaker economies is expected to be 40% greater than that of stronger economies with high emissions by 2050. Therefore, tropical countries are faced with climate change challenges along with lingering economic and financial challenges.

The Road Ahead

The mitigating cost is minimal compared to the estimated cost of climate change in the long run. The damages done by climate change in economic and financial terms have been estimated to be six times more than the cost needed for limiting climate change to below two degrees. If proper steps are not taken for climate change and emissions reductions, the economic losses will increase even further. About 60% of income loss on the global average is expected by 2100 throughout the world.

The use of the latest technologies including Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) can facilitate countries in building resilience. On May 23, Reuters reported that cities worldwide are adopting digital twin technology to tackle urban challenges. The digital twin technology allows the creation of a real-time digital replica of a physical object or environment based on the data collected from various sources including satellites and IoT devices. The use of digital twin technology is helping deal with climate-related challenges and building resilience including air pollution reduction, and urban heat island management. The technology is gaining massive popularity and 500 cities are expected to use digital twin technology by 2025. The use of digital twins in cities could potentially save $280 billion by 2030 especially when cities are facing climate-related challenges including rising temperatures and sea levels. Some of the cities already using this technology include Singapore and Tokyo.

Siemens AG (ETR:SIE) is a German industrial conglomerate that is working on developing digital twin technology to help plan and optimize the development of cities. Siemensstadt Square is a 180-acre mixed-use development project in Berlin by Siemens AG (ETR:SIE). The twin city technology by the company is serving as a test bed for digital transformation technology focusing on the implementation of the technology for urban planning and operations. The project by Siemens AG (ETR:SIE) aims to create a sustainable, inclusive, and livable district. By optimizing city planning and operations cities can be more efficient.

A panoramic view of the Petronas Towers, a symbol of Malaysia’s economics and a backdrop for the business combination.

Our Methodology

To make our list of the most tropical countries in Asia, we initially sifted through various sources that defined what a tropical country is. Our sources included the National Geographic Society, Oxford Reference, Britannica, and World Atlas. We were able to identify location and temperature as the determining factors for a tropical country. We then sifted through almost ten sources that mentioned the names of the tropical countries in Asia. We extracted the names of the countries that appeared in at least 50% of our sources.

Based on our research, a tropical country’s main feature is located in the latitude lines of the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, which makes up 23.5 degrees North and South of the Equator in latitude lines. We then individually looked up the latitude location of each of the countries extracted from our sources. The data was extracted from GeoNames. We have only mentioned the latitude location because the tropics are determined using latitudes and give holistic information about which tropic the country is present in and the distance from the equator. We have used the latitude of each country as our primary metric.

The second most pertinent feature of a tropical country is the average temperature which generally lies between 25 to 28 degrees Celsius. The tropics receive varying amounts of rain, however, the temperature generally remains high because of the geographical closeness to the equator. Annual Average Mean Surface Air Temperature was therefore taken as the secondary metric. We have used the data from the World Bank. The metric presented the annual average mean temperature for each country from 1991 till 2020.

The data has been arranged in descending order of the degree of latitude implying the further away a country is from the equator the less tropical it is. The secondary metric has been used as a tie-breaker for countries with similar locations. It is important to note that for our list we have also included some countries that are the closest to the tropics, lie in a subtropical region, or experience tropical climates to some extent.

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