Typhoons, cyclones, floods and drought have already caused temporary or long-term dislocation of millions of people in countries such as Malaysia, Pakistan, China and the Philippines, ADB said.

"This process is set to accelerate in coming decades as climate change leads to more extreme weather," ADB said, citing excerpts from its "Climate Change and Migration in Asia and the Pacific" scheduled for release next month, Press Trust of India reports.

The study calls on governments to be prepared for increased migration due to climate change, noting that an international cooperation system doesn't exist to manage migration flows.

"No international cooperation mechanism has been set up to manage these migration flows and protection and assistance schemes remain inadequate, poorly coordinated, and scattered," the report said. "National governments and the international community must urgently address this issue in a proactive manner."

"Climate-induced migration will affect poor and vulnerable people more than others," said Bart W. Edes, director of ADB's Poverty Reduction, Gender, and Social Development Division, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reports.

"In many places, those least capable of coping with severe weather and environmental degradation will be compelled to move with few assets to an uncertain future. Those who stay in their communities will struggle to maintain livelihoods in risk-prone settings at the mercy of nature's whims," Edes said.

With 4 billion people -- 60 percent of the world's population -- Asia is especially prone to climate-induced migration because of its massive population and high exposure to environmental risks, the report states.

Furthermore, one-third of Southeast Asia's population resides in areas considered at risk and the region could experience population displacements of "unprecedented scale" in the coming decades," ADB said in its study.

In Indonesia, for example, up to 201 million urban residents would be at risk from multiple hazards because of climate change in 2050, the study says, reports The Jakarta Globe. That's an increase of 148 percent from 2000.

Existing migration patterns expected to accelerate, the study says, include rural-urban migration, especially to large cities; cross-border migration to India; migration of semi-skilled laborers to Middle East and Southeast Asian countries, as well as the continued "brain drain" of educated and wealthy people to developed countries.

Yet more frequent and intense weather episodes could also spark the development of new semi-urban areas that would provide resettlement options to displaced populations, the study said.

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