Regional consultation on “Trade, climate change and food security in South Asia”

A two-day Regional Consultation on “Trade, Climate Change and Food Security in South Asia” began in Kathmandu on 20 December, with participants from around the region calling for policies and strategies to cope with the impacts on agriculture and food production from a highly likely increase in global temperature of more than 2 percentage points above pre-industrial levels. They also called for simplifying the operational modalities of the SAARC Food Bank and making them more pragmatic for member countries to benefit from it in times of need.

The program is organized by South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE) and Oxfam Novib. About 50 experts from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are participating in the program. The discussions during the program cover issues such as the Doha climate conference and global climate negotiations; SAARC Food Bank; SAARC Seed Bank; liberalization of environmental goods; regional trade in agriculture and food products; climate change adaptation; biofuel and food security; and technology transfer, among others. 

Inaugurating the program, Dr. Abdur Rahim Mikrani, Member, National Planning Commission, Government of Nepal, said the meeting was timely in the context of severe impacts of climate change on agriculture, and the need for assessing the inter-linkages between trade, climate change and food security. He lauded SAWTEE’s key role in lobbying for a regional seed bank in South Asia, an agreement on which was signed at the 17th SAARC Summit in Male. He stressed the need to work out guidelines for the effective operationalization of the SAARC Food Bank, which has not been drawn upon by any member state even five years since its establishment although several countries have been hit by natural calamities resulting in food shortages.

http://spotlightnepal.com/News.aspx?ArticleID=4251

Survival Of Kyoto Protocol

By Batu Uprety

Climate change-induced disasters are increasing and have largely affected the people and their livelihood. Climate change was realized nearly three decades back, and legally-binding instruments - the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol (KP) - were adopted in 1992 and 1997 respectively. The Convention and the Protocol provision for taking necessary actions in addressing the on-going and emerging threats of climate change.

Parties to the Convention and the Protocol meet every year and decide measures for their effective implementation. Recently, Parties met at Doha, Qatar, from 26 November and to 7 December 2012, and have made many decisions to implement the Convention and the Protocol. As this author mentioned in the previous article, there were seven sessions at Doha namely: (i) 18th session of the COP (Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC); (ii) 8th meeting of the CMP (COP serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the KP); (iii) 37th session of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI); (iv) 37th session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA); (v) Ad-hoc Working (AWG) on Long-term Cooperative Action (LCA); (vi) AWG on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties to the KP; and (vii) AWG on Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP).

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New Climate Projections Allow Better Planning: ADB

Climate change is expected to increase temperatures in Nepal by several degrees by 2060, but a new database set up by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) should help this geographically diverse country better prepare for the various climate change impacts.

“The potential applications of this database are manifold: If a farmer has a better idea of how rain patterns are going to change, he can make better decisions about the crops he will plant, while the engineer can make a more informed decision about how to build roads that will last, and the government official can better direct public spending,” said Cindy Malvicini, Senior Water Resources Specialist, at ADB. 

 Under a project called “Strengthening Capacity for Managing Climate Change and the Environment,” ADB has coordinated a more specific set of climate change projections for areas as small as 12 square kilometers. Previous climate change data provided projections for wide swathes of up to 100 square kilometers. The new data are more targeted, allowing for more effective climate response plans to be drawn up.

The data show that between 2030 and 2060, the annual mean maximum temperature will increase in most areas of Nepal. While it will rise only slightly in the central part of the country, it will go up by about 3°C in the northwestern high mountain region. Meanwhile, average annual rainfall will increase slightly across the whole country, but increase most in the western and northern high mountain regions.

The projections have been made available through the Nepal Climate Data Portal on http://dhm.gov.np/dpc 

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Himalayan Glacial Melting Fast

A new study says that glaciers in the Himalayas are reacting to climate change in different ways, with glaciers in the eastern and central Himalayas retreating at accelerating rates..

In China’s Xinjiang region, a key river has been running dry in summer. Now a team of international scientists is grappling with a problem facing the Tarim River basin and other mountainous regions — how to secure water supplies as demands increase and glaciers melt.

According to a study,  western Himalaya and Hindu Kush region are more stable and possibly even growing in places. According to a report by the National Research Council, many of the glaciers of the Himalayan region are retreating at rates comparable to other parts of the world, but changes to glacial meltwater are not likely to make a significant difference in water availability at lower elevations, which rely more on monsoon rains and snowmelt. If the the current rate of glacial retreat continues, however, the report said that high-elevation areas of some river basins could see altered seasonal water flow. In addition, researchers say the melting of glaciers could affect regional water security during periods of drought or “similar climate extremes.” The Himalaya/Hindu Kush region is the source of several river systems — including the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra — that supply drinking water and irrigation to 1.5 billion people.

http://e360.yale.edu/digest/in_himalaya_mountains__a_mixed_picture_of_glacial_melting/3622/

Asian Water Scarcity Risked as Coal-Fired Power Embraced

Inner Mongolia’s rivers are feeding China’s coal industry, turning grasslands into desert. In India, thousands of farmers have protested diverting water to coal- fired power plants, some committing suicide.

The struggle to control the world’s water is intensifying around energy supply. China and India alone plan to build $720 billion of coal-burning plants in two decades, more than twice today’s total power capacity in the U.S., International Energy Agency data show. Water will be boiled away in the new steam turbines to make electricity and flush coal residue at utilities from China Shenhua Energy Co. (1088) to India’s Tata Power Co. (TPWR) that are favoring coal over nuclear because it’s cheaper.

With China set to vaporize water equal to what flows over Niagara Falls each year, and India’s industrial water demand growing at twice the pace of agricultural or municipal use, Asia’s most populous nations will have to reconsider energy projects to avoid conflict between cities, farmers and industry.

“You’re going to have a huge issue with the competition between water, energy and food,” said Vineet Mittal, managing director of Welspun Energy Ltd., the utility unit of Leon Black’s Apollo Global Management LLC-backed Welspun Group. “Water is something everyone should be probing every chief executive about,” he said in an interview.

Investors have driven up the 49-member S&P Global Water Index (SPGTAQD) about 96 percent from its low point after the 2008 financial crisis. That beat the 88 percent gain in the period by the 1,625-stock the MSCI World Index, a global benchmark, and trailed the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s 101 percent increase.

 http://spotlightnepal.com/News.aspx?ArticleID=3888

 

Bhutan Climate Summit: Level of Participation is Yet to announce

It is still uncertain whether heads of the government will attend the Climate Summit for a Living Himalyas in Thimpu, slated for November 19 and 20.

Organized by Bhutan government with support from ICIMOD, WWF, Macarthur Foundation, UNDP and Danish Government, the summit is still expecting to see the head of the government of four countries Nepal, Bhutan, India and Bangladesh.

The Climate Summit for a Living Himalayas in Thimphu, Bhutan, on November 19 groups Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and India in talks on food and water security, biodiversity and alternative energy sources.

Secretary to the Ministry of Environment Krishna Gyawali said that the matter related to the participation of the prime minister will be decided next week.

Gyawali admitted no leaders had yet agreed to attend but said the possibility was "very high" that Nepalese Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai would be there.

The Himalayas, the world's tallest mountain range, divide China from south Asia and many of the its tallest peaks are located on the Asia giant's western border.

They include the 8,848-metre (29,028-foot) summit of Everest, the world's tallest mountain, and the world's second tallest peak, K2, on the border with Pakistan.

"We have tried before in this region to bring in different countries on the issue of climate change with very little effect," said Tariq Aziz of WWF Nepal, a partner at the summit.

Aziz said bringing in nations other than those on the southern slopes of the eastern Himalayas would "bring in complexities with Pakistan, with Afghanistan -- you bring in issues which cloud this whole need for us to actually empower our people to fight the oncoming impact of climate change".

Gyawali announced Nepal was planning to hold a ministerial-level climate change meeting of mountain countries across the world early next year.

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