France has extended financial assistance to India in support of its climate change mitigation schemes Day-to-day multilateral negotiations remain an important issue of international policy. They have to pave the way for a global, formal and quantified agreement which is needed to fight climate change in the long run. But in actual terms, fighting climate

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Installing a wind turbine at home: $30,000. Switching to geothermal heat: $20,000. Powering your home with the sun and a bucket of water? Priceless. Well, not quite priceless. But MIT researchers have discovered an inexpensive way to harness and store the sun’s energy. The new technology only needs 5 liters of water, 4 hours of

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As the country waits with bated breath for a normal monsoon this year, experts believe that not only India, but the whole South-Asian region at large, has not realised the gravity of falling water tables and is yet to frame a comprehensive law on water management. In a discussion on ‘Water Security In South Asia’,

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The livelihood of thousands of Tibetans living on China’s highest plateau is under threat as global warming and environmental degradation dry up water sources for three mighty Asian rivers, experts say. Dwindling glaciers and melting permafrost in the mountains surrounding the fragile Qinghai-Tibet plateau are leading to erosion of grasslands and wetlands, threatening the watershed

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It is another international war of words on the Himalayan glaciers, with the same central theme: whose problem, and responsibility, are the Himalayan glaciers? Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh is at loggerheads with an article in the prestigious New York Review of Books which suggests that Ramesh and the Indian government are taking

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Bangladesh may avoid losing a predicted fifth of its land to rising sea levels because of accumulated sediment being washed down by Himalayan rivers, according to scientists. Researchers at the Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS), in capital city Dhaka, said that the Himalayas — relatively young mountains with a loose structure —

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Chief Secretary releases Asian Development Bank (ADB) report on “Climate Change Adaptation Water Resources Strategy for Himachal Pradesh” here today. She said that this study has been done by Asian Development Bank under technical cooperation programme with the Department of Agriculture, Himachal Pradesh which started in September, 2009. This report has been prepared after having

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More than any other region in the world, South Asian countries in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region is hit by disasters the most, particularly recurring floods every year. This affects 92% of the population in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, according to a South Asian Disasters report of IFRC in 2005. In Bangladesh and parts

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Himalayan glaciers are melting slower than originally thought, but now media interest may be drying up…. A British study shows journalists are overlooking the issue of global warming in favor of more sensational stories, an issue that will be discussed at this year’s Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum. It’s been a difficult few months for

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What role does the media play in curbing climate change? That’s the question a diverse group of participants will grapple with at Deutsche Welle’s annual Global Media Forum in Bonn which opens on June 21. In May this year, environment ministers from 45 countries met for climate talks near Bonn in western Germany. A few

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Impacts of man-made greenhouse warming on rainfall would endure long after temperatures fell, a study suggests. UK Met Office scientists constructed a hypothetical future in which carbon dioxide levels rise and then fall, and modelled what might happen to rainfall. Their computer simulation showed temperature falling decades after CO2′s decline, with changed rainfall going on

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A combination of climate change and urban growth will push temperatures higher in cities worldwide. Global warming and urbanization exacerbate each other to make hot cities even hotter. City nights will grow much warmer in some places over the next few decades. It is becoming ever more important to invest in technologies that can make

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The UN science body on climate change has released a list of 831 scientists who will write its fifth report on global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change received 3,000 nominations and the authors were drawn from fields including meteorology, physics, oceanography, statistics, engineering and economics, the Nobel Prize-winning body said. The IPCC has

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Nepal is all set to organise the first high level meeting of the ministers of more than thirty mountainous countries in Kathmandu in September. The team led by the secretary of Ministry of Environment Dr Ganesh Raj Joshi had organised the meeting of mountain countries two weeks ago in Bonn of Germany where more than

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James Delingpole of the Telegraph is not impressed by the latest “research” showing how dumb skeptical scientists are because of the small number of “peer-reviewed” papers published , not mentioning how the editors of these journals shut out sceptics. He reports on another poll by Jon Krosnick supposedly showing huge support for the alarmist cause by

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Two of Asia’s ‘water towers’, the Brahmaputra and Indus river basins, are likely to be severely affected by climate change while others will be less affected and could even benefit, research on Asia’s rivers shows. One-fifth of the world’s population is dependent on water from the Brahmaputra, Indus, Ganges, Yangtze and Yellow rivers — often

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New research from Utrecht University in the Netherlands counters claims by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that the Himalayan Glaciers could disappear by 2035. Walter Immerzeel of Utrecht used data from a pair of satellites known as GRACE to estimate changes in the thickness of the glaciers that supply the Indus, Brahmaputra, Ganges,

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Mountain Partnership News Letter JUNE 2010 Peak to Peak’ is an opportunity to keep you up-to-date with the latest news, activities and events related to the Mountain Partnership. This newsletter, prepared by the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, is sent by e-mail to all members and other interested partners and can be read on-line at http://www.mountainpartnership.org/news/news.asp  

It is a well-established fact that glaciers are retreating worldwide. Changes in climatic trends during the past two centuries have had a significant impact on glacier retreat rates and the melting of permafrost. Chaujar (2009) investigated the effect of climate change on Himalayan glaciers based on dating lichens that have formed on moraines during various

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Published by Nick Sundt: The Sunday Times (UK) published yesterday (20 June 2010) a correction and a apology for an article it published on 31 January 2010, UN Climate Panel Shamed by Bogus Rainforest Claim. We provide the text of that original article later in this posting.  In The Sunday Times and the IPCC: Correction, the Sunday Times said

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Two of Asia’s ‘water towers’, the Brahmaputra and Indus river basins, are likely to be severely affected by climate change while others will be less affected and could even benefit, research on Asia’s rivers shows. One-fifth of the world’s population is dependent on water from the Brahmaputra, Indus, Ganges, Yangtze and Yellow rivers — often

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IS IT curtains for Himalayan glaciers? A controversial prediction that found its way into the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said they’d be gone by 2035, but a detailed new analysis contradicts it. In fact, it says, most of them aren’t shrinking at all. The primary aim of the study

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Nepali summiteer Apa Sherpa, 50, world record holder for 20 ascents of Mt. Qomolangma, articulated his contentment over unfurling a climate change message from top of the world. Popularly known as “Super Sherpa”, Nepali hero Apa conquered the world’s highest peak for 20th time, breaking his own world record again on May 22. “I had

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While the Himalayan glaciers may not be in danger of disappearing as claimed by an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, they are still affected by global climate change, threatening food security for 60 million people, a new study shows. IPCC had said that glaciers in the Himalaya were likely to disappear by 2035 or

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Climatic change in South Asia manifested in the wild fire in Himalayas. Eight wild fires are raging in Bhutan. Kuentsel, the national newspaper of Bhutan reported that it is causing serious damage to Bhutan’s forest resources. Not only that it would seriously damage Bhutan’s wheat harvest. Only recently Bhutan resorted to wheat cultivation though Bhutan

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T. V. Padma reports on Bhutan’s dilemma: how to reconcile conservation, economic development and happiness in a modern world. Unsurprisingly, conservation is central to Bhutan’s 1998 National Environment Strategy, which aims to balance economic development and environmental conservation. The core of Bhutan’s conservation strategy is a system of national parks and protected areas that form

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“There are first world countries, third world and second world. But Bhutan is future world. Their way of viewing progress offers good guidance for the rest of us.” Deborah Llewellyn, Consultant with Save the Children, USA. Conventional clichés abound on Bhutan. And like all clichés, much merit lies in the gist of the statement. Superlative

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Hundreds of policymakers, energy experts, project developers and investors from around the world gathered in the Philippines Monday for a five-day forum on boosting investments and technologies to advance clean energy solutions in the Asia and Pacific region. Hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF), opened Monday this year,

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Code of conduct and rapid communication are key, scientists tell review panel. Hannah Hoag A former head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that the organization should adopt a code of conduct and develop a mechanism to fix errors more quickly. On 15 June, Robert Watson, who chaired the IPCC from 1997

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Alterations in Himalayan ecosystems from climate change could dramatically alter the lives of over 700 million people that live in this region. South Asian countries met from 29 August to 1 September 2009 in Nepal at a mini climate-change summit ahead of international negotiations that will take place in Copenhagen in December 2009 to develop a new

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In Nepal, lost in the chaos of political upheavals, a silent revolution is afoot. In remote villages of this mountainous and energy-starved country people are demanding their right to electricity. They say electricity is a national good; everyone must have a right to it. This is not to say Nepal has enough electricity for all.

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Climate change could cause increasing and unpredictable hazard risks in mountainous regions, according to a new study from the University of Exeter and Austrian researchers. The study analyzes the effects of two extreme weather events — the 2003 heatwave and the 2005 flood — on the Eastern European Alps. It demonstrates what impact events like

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Pant Nagar (Uttarakhand) India: With alien species threatening the delicate balance in Himalayas, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday stressed on conserving the endemic fauna of the fragile ecosystem in upper reaches of Uttarakhand and promoting traditional crops. “The Himalayas need to be saved from the invasion of exotic species (non-native species). Their biodiversity, most

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A dedicated centre to study the impact of climate change in ecologically rich North-eastern region will soon come up at Northeast Hill University campus at Meghalaya capital Shillong. The Union minister of state for environment and forest, Jairam Ramesh announced this here during the first consultation meet of Crore-National Mission for A Green India (NMGA)

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This false-color NASA image shows the approximate retreat of the Gangotri Glacier in the Himalaya mountain range between 1780 and 2001. Because of global climate change, the glacier has been retreating at a rate of 75 feet (23 meters) annually, according to a WWF report. The Gangotri is the source of the Ganges (or Ganga)

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The pledges to curb carbon emissions made during 2009′s Copenhagen Accord are more likely to see Earth suffer a three degree warming rather than the deal’s target of two degrees.   Such a warming could have dire affects for Earth’s climate system, possibly increasing the frequency of droughts, floods, storms and rising seas, all of

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Draft text from UN proposes that rich countries cut emissions up to 40% but requires poor countries to ‘peak’ emissions by 2020 A new blueprint for a global climate agreement would force the United States to massively reduce its greenhouse gas emissions but could also limit developing countries’ attempts to grow their economies, diplomats at

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THE LATEST round of UN climate talks concluded yesterday with developing countries complaining that an “unbalanced” approach was being adopted in preparing for this year’s summit in the Mexican resort of Cancun. Latin American, African and the G77 bloc of 134 developing countries were referring in general to a revised negotiating text drafted by Zimbabwe

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BONN, June 11 (Xinhua) — The second round of UN climate talks in 2010 ended on Friday. No draft text for future Cancun negotiation has been agreed by parities. The June session was the first which came to substantive negotiations since last December’s contentious Copenhagen summit, which was previously expected to draw a draft text

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Freshwater flow dominated by monsoon rains rather than glacier run-off. Richard A. Lovett Although global warming is expected to shrink glaciers in the Himalayas and other high mountains in Central Asia, the declining ice will have less overall impact on the region’s water supplies than previously believed, a study concludes. It’s an important finding, says

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Melting glaciers in the Himalayas will have varying impacts on the region’s five major river basins, a study says. Changes to the flow of meltwater as a result of global warming is likely to have a “severe” impact on food security in some areas, say scientists. Yet people living elsewhere are likely to see food

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The meltdown of the Himalayan glaciers is not going to be nearly as dire as a Nobel Prize-winning UN climate panel predicted, but it does still threaten the water and food security of 60 million people, says a new report. Glaciers are often described as the “water towers” of the world, and the UN has

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Study-Shrinking glaciers to spark food shortages DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Nearly 60 million people living around the Himalayas will suffer food shortages in the coming decades as glaciers shrink and the water sources for crops dry up, a study said Thursday. But Dutch scientists writing in the journal Science concluded the impact would be

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Shanta Barley in New Scientist: The Himalayan glaciers that feed Asia’s five largest rivers are in no danger of disappearing by 2035, as claimed in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s most recent report. In fact, only the glaciers that melt into the Ganges are shrinking, according to the most detailed analysis yet of how

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Described as a ‘white spot’ for research in the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, the Hindu-Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region continues to suffer from a lack of adequate data — according to a recent publication ‘The Waters of the Third Pole: Sources of Threat, Sources of Survival’. Andreas Schild, director-general of the International Centre

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Himalayan nation Nepal is facing competition in its bid to bring together mountainous countries to amplify their concerns on vulnerability to climate change. During the ongoing UN climate change conference in the German city of Bonn, just as Nepalese officials announced an initiative to form a group, the Mountain Alliance Initiative, two Central Asian nations

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BEIJING – The livelihood of thousands of Tibetans living on China’s highest plateau is under threat as global warming and environmental degradation dry up water sources for three mighty Asian rivers, experts say. Dwindling glaciers and melting permafrost in the mountains surrounding the fragile Qinghai-Tibet plateau are leading to erosion of grasslands and wetlands, threatening

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Himalayan countries must set aside their differences and  collaborate on science in order to avoid a common water crisis, says a report of CHI Partner Thirdpole www.thirdpole.net Environmental pressures, including those from climate change, could have unprecedented effects on the livelihoods of millions of people in the Hindu-Kush Himalaya region, according to the study, published

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KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal said on Saturday that the developed industrial nations are responsible for the climate change which is behind the greenhouse effect. Speaking at a programme organised to mark the World Environment Day in Kathmandu, the PM reasoned that the developed countries have to pay compensation to the developing and poor

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The cold deserts of the Indian Himalayas where the survival of many flora species is minimal may soon see massive plantations of seabuckthorn – a medicinally rich plant – in a move that is expected to help check soil erosion and benefit farmers economically. A long-term national policy aims to start seabuckthorn plantation in high-altitude

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As part of the first ever strategic talks between India and the United States, high-level officials discussed various issues including climate change, terrorism, nuclear technology and clean energy. The strategic talks which concluded last week are a sign of India’s growing importance as a regional as well as global super power. Signaling further that the US recognizes India’s

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Bhutan will be proudly hosting the 23rd Session of Asia Pacific Forestry Commission (AFPC) from 8-11 June 2010 at the Royal Convention Centre, Thimphu. The overall Session in close collaboration with FAO is themed, “Forest – Our Heritage, Our Future” and will include deliberations focusing on biodiversity, forest governance, climate change and sustainable forest management

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The Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Conservation and Environment (UWICE) launched the Bhutan Ecological Society in Thimphu at Clock Tower Square on 5 June 2010 coinciding with World Environment Day. The Conferment of the the Jigme Singye Wangchuck Outstanding Environmental Stewardship award for policy and field leadership event also took place. The half-day conferment of award

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While mulling a range of plans to entice more than a million tourists during 2011, Nepal has come up with another scheme to offer tourists.Nepal, known as world famous tourism destination, is offering ” tree-plantation” opportunity to tourists in perception over global issues — climate change and environment conservation. Nepal Association of Tour and Travel

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The United States Government’s partnership with Nepal began almost six decades ago in January 1951 as the first bilateral donor when Nepal opened its doors to the modern world. Together we began a rich and strong relationship of trust, mutual respect, and commitment to a brighter future for all Nepalese. Since 1951, the United States

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It is commendable that Nepal and China have struck a deal on wildlife conservation, including management of nature reserves and protected areas and combating wildlife crime such as poaching and illegal trade in flora and fauna and forestry products. As per the agreement, the two neighbors will henceforth cooperate in formulating forestry strategies, policies and

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Social safety nets are normally classified into formal and informal. In the formal safety nets, individual access to economic and social support is guaranteed by law but in informal safety nets schemes, there is a likelihood of support to individuals for attaining or remaining above the designated minimum standard of living but without any legal

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MANILA, Philippines – Poorer countries that have borne the brunt of climate change’s effects will save, not lose, money by putting in place ways to rescue the environment, Al Gore said Tuesday. The former U.S. vice president spoke to a forum in Manila in one of his first public engagements since he and wife, Tipper,

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…. as UN Scrambles to Get Climate Treaty Back on Track; Calls for Developed Nations to Repay ‘Climate Debt’ and an ‘International Court of Climate and Environmental Justice’ to Prosecute Developed World. BONN, Germany, June 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following is being issued by Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow: The climate talks are back, this

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Chipko movement leader Sunderlal Bahuguna has vehemently opposed big hydel projects having underground long tunnels which he claimed were destroying the ecology of the Himalayan region. “Instead of big projects like Loharinag Pala which are having long tunnels, we should build projects where the impact on the ecology is minimum. The blasting to dig a

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