The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) is a regional intergovernmental organization serving the eight-member countries of the Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) region, also known as the ‘pulse of the planet‘.
Home to diverse culture and biodiversity, the HKH region serves as a source of clean drinking water to approximately two billion people. Extending 3,500 km over all or part of eight countries, i.e., Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, India, China, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, the HKH region is the source of 10 large Asian river systems and provides livelihoods to a population of around 240 million people in the region.
Ahead of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), Dr. Pema Gyamtsho, Director General at ICIMOD talked exclusively to the DevelopmentAid journalist for South Asia, Laxman Datt Pant, about the preparations being made by the member countries to amplify mountain voices to promote climate action for the HKH region.
DevelopmentAid: How do you see the HKH region? What are the key challenges and adaptation practices relating to climate change in this region?
ICIMOD Director General: The HKH region is unique in terms of geography and geopolitics. Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, is located in this region. It is rich in cultural heritage i.e., the birthplace of Gautam Buddha and so much other natural and cultural heritage is located in this region, which can be considered a global asset because, outside of the Antarctic and the Arctic, it has the largest reserve of ice. It is often called the third pole and I think we should recognize this. This region is the source of 10 of Asia’s largest rivers.
These rivers not only provide water, they serve human needs including drinking water, energy, and agriculture, and support the lives of three billion people. In terms of climate change, the HKH region is the most vulnerable region in the world. The temperature is rising faster than anywhere else, our glaciers are melting at a faster rate, and snow cover is decreasing, therefore biodiversity is being affected. We should be vigilant to these threats.
DevelopmentAid: How are you preparing to amplify mountain voices to promote climate action for the HKH region at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) scheduled for 31 October – 12 November 2021?
ICIMOD Director General: I think the first thing we need to do is of course to take a regional stance and, for that to happen, the countries of the HKH region have to come together. All the members, i.e., Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, China, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, should come together and agree on a common set of messages we need to give to the world at large.
The first thing we should do is to communicate clearly that this is a unique region, a global asset that is highly vulnerable. Secondly, we need to enhance our regional pressure at all levels and to gain support from the international community. ICIMOD had carried out a comprehensive assessment of the state of the HKH region which resulted in the HKH Assessment Report, 2019. Based on that, we have concluded there are six urgent actions that need to be taken including meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), limiting temperature rise to below 1.5 degree Celsius, exchanging information and knowledge, and enhancing financial investment. We are very happy that last year our regional members came together for the Ministerial level Mountain Summit during which the relevant ministers signed a declaration to drive this HKH assessment forward.
The key message we want to take to COP26 is that this region needs increased financial investment and technical assistance to deal with the climate crisis.
DevelopmentAid: How do you assess the efforts of the HKH member countries in combating climate change?
ICIMOD Director General: All the countries in the region are trying their level best. China has taken so many steps to reduce emissions. India has switched over to alternative renewable energy resources. If you look at Nepal, the forest cover has increased and has almost doubled in the last two decades or so. Bhutan is doing very well in terms of conservation. In Pakistan, forestation and the plantation of trees is gaining momentum. Actions are being taken, but we need to do more. And, to do more we need investment. We need support from the international community.
DevelopmentAid: What specific strategies are required for the HKH region to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change?
ICIMOD Director General: We should look at the process, the atmosphere, and air pollution. There are so many things we can do to reduce carbon emissions and particle emissions. We need to convert our factories and industries to cleaner energies. Garbage burning should be reduced. Equally important is to look at how wildfires can be managed.
Hundreds of people are climbing up the mountains and the mountains have no time to rest. We need to look at our mountaineering industry and the snow cover, ice, and glaciers. To build back better we should take into account the carrying capacity, the restoration mechanism, and waste and vegetation management. Then we need to look at water, it’s all about too much or too little water. Adaptation is about managing water. We need to have an early warning system within the community and at the national level to prepare for floods and disasters. These are transboundary issues. We need to address the issue of water shortage. Springs are drying up with drinking water becoming scarce. We are also looking at how we can revive the springs that are drying up such as using geo-hydro engineering methods and so on.
DevelopmentAid: What needs to be done to scale up investment in mountain-specific priorities?
ICIMOD Director General: I think there is still not enough recognition of the high degree of vulnerability of the HKH region. Secondly, there is not an adequate appreciation of the impact of the changes taking place here. We refer to the HKH region as the ‘pulse of the planet’. What happens here will affect many areas not just in the immediate neighborhood but everywhere. If you look at the impact of the outburst of glacier lakes, you know the floods don’t stop at our borders. They cut across these and then affect elsewhere.
Disaster in the mountain regions affects millions of people. There needs to be an increased appreciation between livelihood and lives. It is high time that we joined together in our efforts to increase investment in these issues.
DevelopmentAid: How do you see the efforts of the ICIMOD’s eight regional member countries in developing targeted knowledge products and preparing regional submissions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to promote ambitious climate action for the HKH region?
ICIMOD Director General: I think all our member countries have come with very comprehensive targets such as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), action plans on approaching carbon neutrality, and moving towards zero carbon adaptation plans. However, we need to have a more concerted regional effort. If you look at pollution, this is transboundary, river systems are transboundary. What happens upstream affects downstream. Hence, we need to further enhance our regional cooperation and invest in proper planning. Countries like Nepal and Bhutan are completely mountainous. One of the reasons behind major disasters is that we are not investing in proper planning and implementation. Of course, this requires resources.
Take roads, for example, Switzerland is a mountainous country but they have beautiful roads. They don’t experience landslides or mudslides because their roads were built with proper planning. It is important to make sure that we not only secure financial resources but we have the policy and conviction to implement infrastructure development properly. Within our countries, there is enough room for cooperation including an exchange of scientific knowledge and good practices.
DevelopmentAid: Do you have any recommendations to strengthen regional cooperation to address transboundary climate risk and to increase investments in the HKH mountain-specific climate priorities over the next decade?
ICIMOD Director General: ICIMOD is not a research organization per se, it is neither a development organization nor a university. It operates at the interface between science, policy, and practice. We gather evidence, package this and transfer it as knowledge. I think science is a neutral area and I believe our countries deeply recognize that all can benefit if they come together, look at the evidence at national level policy as well as regional level policies. Technology is neutral, a technology adapted in a rural area of China can be applied anywhere in Bhutan, Nepal, or Pakistan – these are all neutral grounds and required to be transferred into knowledge products. We are looking at all these possibilities and I am confident that we will be able to bring together our regional member countries to address the climate crisis that hits the region.
DevelopmentAid: Could you also enlighten us how ICIMOD contributes towards the initiatives to combat climate change in the Himalayas?
ICIMOD Director General: At the moment, we are working in the Indus River Basin that brings together China, India, and Pakistan to conduct research and to identify the gaps in information and science that are necessary to combat climate change. Also, we are working across the Koshi River Basin that brings together Nepal, India, and China particularly looking at community preparedness for floods and other disasters. We are looking into developing similar programs for the Brahmaputra River Basin as well.
We are also working towards the various landscape and biodiversity issues of the region by bringing all the countries of the region together to see what is happening in terms of livelihoods, knowledge exchange, and the effects of climate change and its impacts and challenges. These are some of the approaches ICIMOD is applying to address both climate change and biodiversity in the region.
DevelopmentAid: Please tell us about the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the post-2020 biodiversity framework. What does it mean for our mountains?
ICIMOD Director General: The CBD calls for urgent policy action at different levels to transform the social and financial models to stabilize biodiversity loss by 2030 allowing for the recovery of natural ecosystems with net improvements by 2050.
The biodiversity framework is very much linked to ICIMOD’s work to protect the ecosystem. Countries in the region are at different levels in terms of their own merits. For example, Bhutan has forest cover of more than 72% of the country’s total area. There is no room to increase forest cover in Bhutan. But the situation in other countries in the region is different with adequate space to increase forest cover. There are a lot more things each country can do to meet their targets. Take as an example the West Bengal Tiger, there are obstacles to certain parts of its habitats. The habitat of snow leopards is also in danger. There are many issues we need to address to combat climate change and to address biodiversity.
DevelopmentAid: How are mountains – the world’s water towers and the strongholds of biodiversity –impacted due to climate change?
ICIMOD Director General: First and foremost, the message has to be very clear i.e., the 1.5 degree Celsius temperature will make it very hot in the HKH region.
Secondly, our region is a mountain region and is highly populated. The link between the environments we live in and the resources we have are quite different than in other regions. Therefore, there remains a lot of pressure on our mountains. The impacts of weather patterns are changing; there are more incidents of drought and heavy rainfalls. Rainfalls are unpredictable. These are major things we need to cope with. Glacier floods, outburst floods, and disasters are increasing in frequency. The impacts are severe in this region and we have to be well prepared for all these.
DevelopmentAid: Could you enlighten us about the ways of raising mountain voices to promote global recognition of the HKH as a climate hotspot? Why does this matter for the rest of the world?
ICIMOD Director General: The slogans, ‘race to zero’ and ‘leaving no one behind’, need to be appropriately materialized through our actions. When we talk about the HKH region, we are talking about 240 million people residing in the mountains and hills and another 1.6 billion people living downstream who are directly dependent on the water resources from the HKH for energy, irrigation, drinking water, and so on. However, the food production that the rivers in the HKH region support probably reaches an estimated 3 billion people.
DevelopmentAid: How have your efforts been hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic? Has there been any visible impact on the initiatives towards combating climate change?
ICIMOD Director General: In addition to having a psychological impact on the lives of people, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a huge setback to all efforts that have been made so far in terms of socio-economic development and poverty alleviation. The Governments of the HKH region have done very well in terms of taking short-term measures to cope with the COVID-19 situation. I am not referring to the preventive measures taken for infections and so on, but the rehabilitative measures have been quite satisfactory.
Addressing pollution and conservation will contribute towards both combating climate change and the impacts of COVID-19 in the future. That’s why we have adopted the slogan, ‘nature-based solution’.
DevelopmentAid: How do you see the awareness level of mountain inhabitants? What actions are needed to sensitize the public and stakeholders regarding the impacts of climate change?
ICIMOD Director General: The level of awareness is increasing. People residing in the mountains are feeling the impact already; seeing with their own eyes the disappearance of snow and the melting of glaciers.
We need to make them not only aware but also help them to prepare for the consequences. If you look at the COVID-19 recovery, my biggest worry is that when people recover along with an increase in mobility and tourism activities, will governments and authorities give a second thought to the idea of ‘building back better’ or will they just grab the opportunities to make money? These are the key areas where we need to be better prepared.
DevelopmentAid: Are you happy with the way the member countries of the HKH region are taking action to combat climate change? What are your recommendations for member countries?
ICIMOD Director General: I would say all our countries are doing their best. Now, there is an accelerated effort being made by all countries to convert to clean energy. This is a positive sign. There is also an increased interest in regional cooperation i.e., for coming together for advocacy and policy dialogues and good practices. Additionally, adaptation measures, giving early warnings, the exchange of information, mitigating pollution, and the restoration of the degraded ecosystem are some of the initiatives that are being taken by member countries. Plantations are moving ahead, protected areas are increasing and I think we have to build on that. All we need are additional resources and technologies for the region.
DevelopmentAid: Do you have any final thoughts you would like to share with our readers?
ICIMOD Director General: I thank you and DevelopmentAid for providing us with this opportunity to share our work and highlight the climate change and biodiversity issues of the HKH region.
