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The Asia and the Pacific region has experienced some of the most damaging disasters in recent decades, with alarming consequences for human welfare. At the same time, the climate in the region has been changing. Temperatures have been higher, on average, and also more variable and more extreme. This paper considers three main disaster risk factors—rising population exposure, greater population vulnerability, and increasing climate-related hazards—behind the increased frequency of intense natural disasters. In a regression analysis within a model of disaster risk determination, the most significant association is between the increase in natural disasters and population exposure, represented by population densities. Population vulnerability also matters, but increasing incomes seem to be associated first with greater and then lesser vulnerability. Finally, there is a notable association between climate-related hazards and the frequency of intense natural disasters in Asia and the Pacific and its sub regions during 1971–2010. Along with the scientific association between greenhouse gases and the changes in the climate, the findings in this paper suggest that there is a link between increasing natural disasters in Asia and the Pacific and man-made emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.