MANILA, Dec. 4 -- Developing Asian countries need to invest in disaster risk management as climate change is threatening sustained growth and poverty reduction.

This is especially crucial as typhoon Haiyan, locally named " Yolanda," has shown the devastation wrought by an extreme weather event caused by climate change. Haiyan killed over 5,000 people and damaged more than 30 billion pesos (685.40 million U.S. dollars) worth of crops and property in central Philippines. The country's economic managers also capped its growth target for the Philippines, hailed as one of the fastest rising emerging economies, to 7 percent this year in light of the damages caused by Haiyan.

Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization said while Haiyan's severity can't be definitively linked to climate change, the extensive damage caused by the storm surge resulted from climate related sea-level rise.

"Economic losses are already increasing because not enough attention is being paid to disaster risk (management). In fact, additional risk is being created on a daily basis," said Charlotte Benson, senior disaster risk management specialist at the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Benson said the problem with investing on climate change is that policy makers tend to invest on projects that will bring immediate relief, instead of planning for the long term.

"A lot of it comes down to money. If you have a choice between spending on something that reaps immediate benefits -- say, a new health clinic -- or something that may not reap benefits for many years -- such as building a sea wall -- then people often opt for the first one," she said.

Benson said there's a need to educate all stakeholders -- policy makers, the private sector, affected communities -- that investing in disaster risk reduction is important and will save lives -- and money -- in the long run.

Haiyan's devastation may in fact be the wake up call that the policy makers in Asia need to integrate climate change into their long term development plans.