Global Climate Change: the road from Kathmandu to Copenhagen
Surya B. Prasai
September 01, 2009
The climate once again is the focus of a conference inaugurated by Nepali Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal this week in Kathmandu, which focuses on vulnerable South Asia. After the Bali summit, held in the first and second weeks of December 2007, Nepali and South Asian environmentalists came back with the jubilant announcement, " We have now signed the Bali Pact." Lest one forget, the Bali Summit was the first major global summit to discuss climate change and how it affects the world´s future populations. Nepal´s ´environmentalists´ even commented on how happy they were that some of the delegates mentioned their country by name at least from the humanitarian standpoint of how a civil conflict had taken excruciating toll on the national environment. Many industrialized countries did promise to help Nepal and other South Asian countries in the Himalayan ecological belt, but these commitments are tied up in some bilateral or multilateral aid program that take time to implement. Nepal´s mountain range is already seriously affected by climate change. The scarcity of Kathmandu´s unplanned water distribution, and the changing nature of the monsoon are two portending realities, in effect.
So what is different in the Kathmandu discussions? According to the organisers, DfID, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Denmark, this meeting is bringing together the region´s climate change experts, government representatives, politicians and civil society organisations. Even the SAARC media has united to express their concern for the climate that surrounds them. The organizers this time focus on practical aim to ensure the very latest evidence of the impacts of climate change on South Asia as a way forward to those who will be responsible for negotiating a global deal at Copenhagen. Nepal represents one of the iconic examples of climate vulnerability with threats posed by the melting glaciers of the Himalayas and impacts that transcend political boundaries. Its geographic location in the Himalayan headwaters of many of the region´s major river systems provide it with strategic climate change adaptation opportunities, to monitor and regulate river flows.
The organizers state, the primary objectives of this conference are to: (i) provide a forum for the countries of the South Asia Himalayas and other countries in the region to share knowledge and experience about common climate change risks; and (ii) forge a common vision on how to tackle the Himalayan climate challenges. The Conference is expected to contribute to thinking about climate change threats and opportunities for South Asia including to discussions in the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) and AWG-Kyoto Protocol.
To date, the challenges the region faces have been largely under-estimated and there is an urgent need for South Asian countries to make their voices heard and highlight what action needs to be taken by the international community to ensure Copenhagen is a success for the region. The stark truth is: Nepal´s own environmental pains are growing day by day. After a decade long civil conflict between 1996-2006, Nepal´s environmental vital statistics have shown major strains and a socio-economic regression which is further exacerbated with a tourism boom and shifting migration patterns.
Everything that was built in the past three decades with the involvement of early donors such as the USAID and UN were totally damaged in every sense of the environmental word. Today Nepal has an unchecked tourism boom which shows no signs of abating with average tourism growth in the past year at 40% despite some recent slack due to the global recession. There was also an increase in air passenger traffic of nearly37%, and in migration to Kathmandu was nearly 32% in the past half decade, just to cite the disproportionate urban setting. International airline pilots complain that visibility is so bad even on fair days at the southern in-track at the Bhatte Danda radar way point to Kathmandu´s Tribhuvan International Airport, that the airport is not worthy of a Visual Flight Approach routing anymore. Within Kathmandu, Nepal´s enchanting capital, pollution must be inhaled mercifully exceeding WHO limitations, as if those barriers were meant to be broken. There is a thick layer of smog that covers major Nepali townships these days not just Kathmandu. The conference organizers could not have chosen a better venue than Kathmandu to highlight Asia´s environmental woes.
According to United Nations sources, Nepal produces 18,000 tons of carbon monoxide and 3,300 tons of hydrocarbons per year. Roughly one-third of the nation's city inhabitants and two-thirds of all rural dwellers do not have pure water, and the use of contaminated drinking water creates a health hazard. Untreated sewage is a major pollution factor: the nation's cities produce an average of 0.7 million tons of solid waste per year. Nepal ´s pro-green environment lobby has estimated that in 2007, 34 of Nepal´s mammal species and 42 of its bird species were endangered, as were 11 plant species. Some of the animal species classified as endangered in Nepal include the snow leopard, tiger, Asian elephant, pygmy hog, great Indian rhinoceros, Assam rabbit, swamp deer, wild yak, chirr pheasant, and gavial. No one has done an accurate study to date. It is true, there is much more at stake.
Nepal definitely will be one of the countries in focus in Copenhagen. To add to Nepal´s environmental degradation which had gone unchecked, one must consider the agricultural encroachment, deforestation, soil erosion, contamination of water supply, and unsurpassed migration into mid-hill townships and cities that has put local environmental pressures on the local community. Nearly 54% of the Nepali population lives under US$2 and 33% among them under US$1. Between mid-1960s and the late 1970s, Nepali forestland lessened from 30% to 22% in total acreages since firewood was then being used by over 90% of the population. Soil erosion is causing the loss of about 240 million cubic meters of topsoil erosion each year. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN estimates that at the present rate of depletion, the forests will be virtually wiped out by 2015.
However, the organizers tend to believe optimistically that the opportunities in the Himalayas are great. Sustainable management of watersheds, forests and huge untapped hydropower resources will not only provide safety nets but also reduce carbon levels. Management of rivers to improve irrigation and reduce the impacts of floods and droughts will help large numbers of people adapt to their changing environment. These opportunities must not be wasted. But at the moment, the future of the region is hanging in the balance.
The Himalayas, the so-called ´water tower´ of South Asia, are a source of water for up to 700m people but the impact of climate change on the mountain range means that the frequency and incidence of severe natural disasters, such as floods, cyclones, droughts and landslides, are rapidly increasing.
The next four months are critical to Copenhagen; the outcome of this meeting will decide on the scale of response for millions across South Asia. The poor living across South Asia, who face failing crop patterns increasingly still believe in superstition that it must be some wrath of some evil spirit unleashed on them. They, in turn, must be convinced by the conference organizers that a more scientific life style is required, there must be resonant action to follow the Kathmandu rhetoric extending from this summit to Copenhagen.
So what is different in the Kathmandu discussions? According to the organisers, DfID, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Denmark, this meeting is bringing together the region´s climate change experts, government representatives, politicians and civil society organisations. Even the SAARC media has united to express their concern for the climate that surrounds them. The organizers this time focus on practical aim to ensure the very latest evidence of the impacts of climate change on South Asia as a way forward to those who will be responsible for negotiating a global deal at Copenhagen. Nepal represents one of the iconic examples of climate vulnerability with threats posed by the melting glaciers of the Himalayas and impacts that transcend political boundaries. Its geographic location in the Himalayan headwaters of many of the region´s major river systems provide it with strategic climate change adaptation opportunities, to monitor and regulate river flows.
The organizers state, the primary objectives of this conference are to: (i) provide a forum for the countries of the South Asia Himalayas and other countries in the region to share knowledge and experience about common climate change risks; and (ii) forge a common vision on how to tackle the Himalayan climate challenges. The Conference is expected to contribute to thinking about climate change threats and opportunities for South Asia including to discussions in the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) and AWG-Kyoto Protocol.
To date, the challenges the region faces have been largely under-estimated and there is an urgent need for South Asian countries to make their voices heard and highlight what action needs to be taken by the international community to ensure Copenhagen is a success for the region. The stark truth is: Nepal´s own environmental pains are growing day by day. After a decade long civil conflict between 1996-2006, Nepal´s environmental vital statistics have shown major strains and a socio-economic regression which is further exacerbated with a tourism boom and shifting migration patterns.
Everything that was built in the past three decades with the involvement of early donors such as the USAID and UN were totally damaged in every sense of the environmental word. Today Nepal has an unchecked tourism boom which shows no signs of abating with average tourism growth in the past year at 40% despite some recent slack due to the global recession. There was also an increase in air passenger traffic of nearly37%, and in migration to Kathmandu was nearly 32% in the past half decade, just to cite the disproportionate urban setting. International airline pilots complain that visibility is so bad even on fair days at the southern in-track at the Bhatte Danda radar way point to Kathmandu´s Tribhuvan International Airport, that the airport is not worthy of a Visual Flight Approach routing anymore. Within Kathmandu, Nepal´s enchanting capital, pollution must be inhaled mercifully exceeding WHO limitations, as if those barriers were meant to be broken. There is a thick layer of smog that covers major Nepali townships these days not just Kathmandu. The conference organizers could not have chosen a better venue than Kathmandu to highlight Asia´s environmental woes.
According to United Nations sources, Nepal produces 18,000 tons of carbon monoxide and 3,300 tons of hydrocarbons per year. Roughly one-third of the nation's city inhabitants and two-thirds of all rural dwellers do not have pure water, and the use of contaminated drinking water creates a health hazard. Untreated sewage is a major pollution factor: the nation's cities produce an average of 0.7 million tons of solid waste per year. Nepal ´s pro-green environment lobby has estimated that in 2007, 34 of Nepal´s mammal species and 42 of its bird species were endangered, as were 11 plant species. Some of the animal species classified as endangered in Nepal include the snow leopard, tiger, Asian elephant, pygmy hog, great Indian rhinoceros, Assam rabbit, swamp deer, wild yak, chirr pheasant, and gavial. No one has done an accurate study to date. It is true, there is much more at stake.
Nepal definitely will be one of the countries in focus in Copenhagen. To add to Nepal´s environmental degradation which had gone unchecked, one must consider the agricultural encroachment, deforestation, soil erosion, contamination of water supply, and unsurpassed migration into mid-hill townships and cities that has put local environmental pressures on the local community. Nearly 54% of the Nepali population lives under US$2 and 33% among them under US$1. Between mid-1960s and the late 1970s, Nepali forestland lessened from 30% to 22% in total acreages since firewood was then being used by over 90% of the population. Soil erosion is causing the loss of about 240 million cubic meters of topsoil erosion each year. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN estimates that at the present rate of depletion, the forests will be virtually wiped out by 2015.
However, the organizers tend to believe optimistically that the opportunities in the Himalayas are great. Sustainable management of watersheds, forests and huge untapped hydropower resources will not only provide safety nets but also reduce carbon levels. Management of rivers to improve irrigation and reduce the impacts of floods and droughts will help large numbers of people adapt to their changing environment. These opportunities must not be wasted. But at the moment, the future of the region is hanging in the balance.
The Himalayas, the so-called ´water tower´ of South Asia, are a source of water for up to 700m people but the impact of climate change on the mountain range means that the frequency and incidence of severe natural disasters, such as floods, cyclones, droughts and landslides, are rapidly increasing.
The next four months are critical to Copenhagen; the outcome of this meeting will decide on the scale of response for millions across South Asia. The poor living across South Asia, who face failing crop patterns increasingly still believe in superstition that it must be some wrath of some evil spirit unleashed on them. They, in turn, must be convinced by the conference organizers that a more scientific life style is required, there must be resonant action to follow the Kathmandu rhetoric extending from this summit to Copenhagen.
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