Zee News: Patches of forest measuring anywhere between 0.1 hectare to 1200 hectares and which are bio-diversity hot spots have been unique to Meghalaya for centuries, but now they are falling into disarray owing to reasons as diverse as poverty, cultural change and migration. Local Khasi tribes consider the forests as “sacred groves”, some of [...]
You are browsing the archive for COUNTRIES.
KuenselOnline: This is the sixteen article on the GLOF research and mitigation project between May 2009 and March 2012. The articles will highlight latest findings on glacier, glacial lakes condition and natural hazards in the Bhutan Himalayas. Experts from the department of geology and mines (DGM), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Japan Science and [...]
Telegraph Nepal: The Nepalese Ministry of Environment launched the Nepal Climate Change Support Programme at the International Conference of Mountain Countries on Climate Change in Kathmandu, April 5, 2012. The first phase of this Euro 16.5 m (NRs 1,800,000,000) programme aims to reduce the vulnerability of 2 million women and men in the Mid and [...]
Deccan Herald: The Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research (CEFIPRA) on Monday launched a multi-disciplinary Indo-French research project titled ‘Adaptation of Irrigated Agriculture to Climate Change (AICHA).’ The study aims at developing an integrated model for analysing the impact of climate change on ground water-irrigated agriculture in south India. Berambadi village and surrounding [...]
SevenSisters Post: Success stories on bio-gas and energy generation in a village in Uttar Pradesh and crop pattern as part of climate change mitigation in neighbouring Nepal were some of the highlights of the week-long basin development programme in Tura which concluded on Wednesday. The meeting also dwelt on financial inclusion and ways and means [...]
Heinrich B0LL Stiftung Foundation: Publication (Aditi Kapoor): What are India’s climate change adaptation policies and what do they mean for its people – women and men? The public discussion on climate change in India tends to focus more on mitigation initiatives. Adaptation is far less in the public eye despite the emerging scientific research on [...]
Guardian (John Vidal, environment editor): Himalayan nation calls on heads of state to come to capital for summit on way countries measure progress. The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, aghast at what it calls the world’s “suicidal path”, has called on heads of state and leading economists to come to the capital Thimphu for a [...]
China’s coming water crisis threatens growth and stability The Yarlung Tsampo River has hurtled down from the Himalayas for millennia, cleaving the mountain range in two and creating one of the world’s steepest and longest canyons. The river forms a huge bend in the remote southeastern corner of the Tibet before flowing into India and [...]
Times of India And Business Recorder: The productivity of staple grain wheat could decline by upto 18% by 2020 due to adverse impact of climate change which is causing rise in temperature, Parliament was informed today. The yield of another major food crop rice might also fall by up to 6 per cent by 2020, [...]
SANDRP Delhi: On World Water Day 2012, the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People (SANDRP) is happy to publish its new report: Water Sector Options for India in a Changing Climate. The report highlights that for the poorest sections, also most vulnerable in the climate change context, the water, food, livelihood and energy [...]
Climate Change Network Nepal: A roundtable discussion on Progress and Implementation Status of Climate Change Policy and Programmes in Nepal was held successfully with participation of around 60 representatives from different government and non government organizations including development activists from 9 districts outside Kathmandu.Mr. Batu Krishna Uprety, Ministry of Environment (MoEnv.) shared the implementation status [...]
Times of India, Dipannita Das: Climate change presents a unique opportunity to revisit our plans to develop and manage water resources, besides helping frame policies and practices, says a report titled ‘water sector options for India in a changing climate,’ published recently by South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP). The SANDRP is [...]
Manjeet’s Blog (Negotiating Everyday): In principle Nepal’s hydropower potential is impressive due to rugged mountain terrain from which snow and rain fed rivers produce significant amount of seasonal water flow. Owing to this natural hydrological processes, Nepal projected an image since 1970s that this country has one of the richest hydropower potential in the world [...]
AlertNet, BANGKOK, Mar 27 (IPS) – India, like other Asian countries, has focused its climate change adaptation strategies on rural and urban areas while neglecting the urban fringes, say experts.Peri-urban areas are characterised by haphazard, accelerated expansion and are farthest from basic urban services and infrastructure, according to United Nations-Habitat’s ‘The State of Asian Cities [...]
Pakistan Observer, Islamabad—Chairman Intellectual Property Organization Pakistan, Hameedullah Jan Afridi, has emphasised on initiating adaptation and mitigation projects in Pakistan to combat the climate change reactions. Afridi MNA participated in International Meeting of Parliamentarians on Climate Change held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He had detailed bilateral talks with the parliamentarians of most vulnerable countries and discussed [...]
Antonio M. Claparols , Journal on line: AS I write this, the weather seems to be bringing its worse to Europe early, inasmuch as drought has hit some of the European countries such as Spain and Italy. So early in the spring — and already severe drought is threatening that part of the world. This [...]
Shyam Saran, The Hindu: Praful Bidwai’s latest book on The Politics of Climate Change and the Global Crisis – Mortgaging our Future, gives us a good and well-informed perspective on the current status of multilateral climate change negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). There is also a detailed critique of India’s [...]
Droughts will be more regular said Dr P.V. Joseph, atmospheric scientist and former director of the Indian meteorological department. Presenting a paper on the role of the Indian Ocean in climate change,’ Dr Joseph said that droughts in the country were increasing and the country would face frequent droughts in the coming years. The two-day [...]
Prasar Bharati, India:Global challenges to tackle international terrorism, climate change, food and energy security, developmental issues and the international financial crisis will dominate the agenda of the fourth BRICS Summit taking place in New Delhi next week. Presidents of the BRICS countries including Russian President Dimitry Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jin Tao, President Dilma Rousseff [...]
FAISAL AHMED, The Economic Times, India :The Conference of Parties (COP 17) Climate Conference held in Durban in November-December 2011 placed due impetus on some critical issues that emanate when climate change concerns intersect with trade policy issues. In fact, the interface between international trade and climate change is fast emerging as a ‘new issue’ [...]
Ramesh Parsad Bhushal, The Himalayan: “The government’s initiative to bring more than fifty countries to Nepal‚ and start a process for new alliance of mountain countries in the long run to hype the mountain agenda may have various implications in the future‚ but it depends on how the country deals with the challenges” From the [...]
By Sujoy Dhar, IPSNews, KOLKATA – Sahara Bibi, a 47-year-old poor Muslim woman living on one of the climate- impacted islands of Eastern India’s fragile Sundarbans archipelago in West Bengal state, was forced to pull her two young sons out of school and send one of them to the Southern state of Kerala to earn [...]
The Nation, ISLAMABAD – On the concluding session of a three-day workshop on the occasion of World Water Day, experts said that Pakistan has done nothing to store water in past 45 years. The workshop titled Framing Responses: Journalists’ Workshop on Climate Change Impacts and Challenges was organised by Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) [...]
Vicky Pope guardian.co.uk : That’s not a question you should be asking – it’s a matter of empirical evidence, not belief. This may seem like an odd question for a climate scientist to ask, but it is one I am constantly asked now. The typical discussion starts: “I know that the climate is changing, but [...]
Tehelka, India: Praful Bidwai brings lucid scholarship and a fresh perspective to issues of climate change, says Nagraj Adve There are two dominant trends in literature among those who agree that global warming is ongoing and serious: those who think, wrongly, that technological solutions will work in isolation (George Monbiot’s Heat: How to Stop the [...]
The News, Islamabad: While the United Nations announced this March 6 that the international target to halve the number of people without access to safe drinking water has been met five years before the 2015 deadline, in Pakistan water worries are rapidly growing. While the UN estimates that more than one in six people worldwide [...]
The Himalayan, KATHMANDU: The International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Nepal office, has been named for the Stockholm Water Prize Laureate for 2012. Awarded by the Stockholm International Water Institute, this prestigious prize honors individuals, institutions or organisations whose work contributes broadly to the conservation and protection of water resources and to the improved health of [...]
The Economic Times, Mukul Sanwal, Former Civil Servant :The Brics summit, to be held in Delhi at the end of March, is an opportunity to begin a discussion on the global governance deficit. Looking ahead to 2050, the major challenges for growth stem from the availability of global ecosystem services, or sustainability , with climate [...]
By Subir Ghosh, DNA: It’s bad news for all – from farmers to policymakers. Yields of tea, coffee and cardamom from high altitude plantations in the Western Ghats are falling because of the changing regional climate. Worse, the region is likely to see a 1.7-1.8 degrees C rise in temperature by 2030. Rainfall may increase [...]
By Suzanne York, HowMany.org,: A study just released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is warning that climate change could exacerbate environmental disasters in Asia and result in a surge of migration by people fleeing crises. In its report, Addressing Climate Change and Migration in Asia and the Pacific, the ADB observed that more than [...]
Daily Times, ISLAMABAD: Climate change could cost the economy of Pakistan up to $14 billion each year for natural disasters and other losses, which is almost 5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, this was stated by Former Federal State Minister for Environment Malik Amin Aslam. He was addressing a seminar titled ‘Outcomes of [...]
By Rashme Sehgal, Deccan Chronicle: India has the world’s largest water infrastructure, but the poorest water delivery system in the world.On World Water Day 2012, water experts are demanding a dramatic revamp of the present water management strategy. Unlike the US and Australia, which have built over 500 cubic meters of water storage per capita, [...]
The Himalayan ecosystem is fragile and diverse. It includes over 51 million people who practice hill agriculture and remains vulnerable The Himalayan ecosystem is vital to the ecological security of the Indian landmass, through providing forest cover, feeding perennial rivers that are the source of drinking water, irrigation, and hydropower, conserving biodiversity, providing a rich [...]
Squatting in a dusty field in the village of Rataul, two hours north of Delhi in the state of Uttar Pradesh, a young woman, like uncounted generations of women before her, is shaping a small mountain of cow dung into Frisbee-size cakes that will fire the family’s cookstove. Perhaps she will make a couple of [...]
Urban air pollution is set to become the top environmental cause of mortality worldwide by 2050, says a new report by France’s Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The worst countries affected will be China and India. The report released March 15 was issued with a strong warning, “Act now or face costly consequences.” [...]
Livestock production systems in Nepal are experiencing a significant downturn as critical resources such as water, soil, forests, agricultural productivity and farm labor are affected by rapid land use changes and climate change impacts. To ensure livestock climate change adaptation and strengthen livestock production systems, it is critical to understand and enhance feed, nutrition, and [...]
With climate change posing one of the biggest challenges, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Friday announced Rs.200 crore for research to develop plant and seed varieties that yield more and can resist climate change. “Food security and agricultural development in the coming decades would depend upon scientific and technological breakthroughs in raising productivity. We have to [...]
Federal cabinet has approved national policy on natural disaster management. Under the policy, effective measures will be taken and arrangements made to cope with natural calamities. Session of the cabinet was held in the PM Secretariat, Islamabad. Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani chaired the meeting. The cabinet approved the national disaster management policy which [...]
A caste system operates where the technical assistants do a lot of the boring dirty work essential for the progress of the project Professor Khadg Singh Valdiya is a well known geoscientist working at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre in Bangalore. His recent article in the 25 February 2012 of Current Science is a lament on [...]
Gross National Happiness (GNH), a concept largely identified with Brand Bhutan, is set to become a key referent point in shaping Bhutan’s economic and development policies. This became evident during a recent speech delivered by Prime Minister Thinley on February 10, 2012. The speech was on the relevance of GNH and in response to the [...]
As the world celebrated International Women’s Day, my thinking goes back to the time of my childhood I spent in my remote village — a beautiful green and mountainous land in the north of Pakistan. I remember women and little children getting up before sunrise and help their families in fields during the sowing and [...]
China is one of the most active developing countries in addressing climate change, but the challenges and realities facing the country often overshadow these efforts. With the world´s largest population and second largest economy, China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gasses, but also the emerging leader in the use and development of clean energy [...]
Small farmers and crop production are under stress in the face of climate change. The impact of climate change is unfolding at a pace that is much quicker than predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), stated a new research study released here in the Capital recently. The study conducted by Action Aid [...]
UNDP (2010) Why water, including GLOFs, is a key sector for the country-Nepal? Water resources play an important role in the overall development of Nepal. Nepal has a theoretical hydropower potential of about 83,000 MW. The source of livelihoods of majority of the population is agriculture. Both of these sectors are heavily dependent on water [...]
Hydrogen fluoride emissions from brick kilns have been found to damage trees and crops in new studies conducted by an international team of scientists in the Peshawar area of northern Pakistan. Peshawar has 450 brick kilns and hydrogen fluoride is also released by factories making aluminium, ceramics, and phosphate fertilisers. Reporting their findings in the [...]
Sammad Sheikh of Tangchekh village in north Kashmir cannot understand why the rice fields that his family cultivated for generations are drying up. “It is a mystery as to why water is getting scarcer in summers,” he says. “This has been happening for the past few years though there have been one or two good [...]
Himalayan Times: Nepal’s 40,000 biogas plants have been registered with the Clean Development Mechanism of the United Nations Climate Change Convention (UNFCC) for carbon trading. According to the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) under the Ministry of Environment, the executive board of UNFCCC has approved 40,602 biogas plants so far. “Now, biogas use helps us [...]
Economic Times: Noting that economies of developing countries are impacted by climate change, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today pitched for greater cooperation between Asian and African countries to address short and long term challenges in this regard. “I believe that in the future we will need to tackle the short term and long term [...]
As a follow-up of the Pakistan – India Dialogue; Climate Change and Sustainable Development in October 2010, the Pakistan – India Track II, (Climate) Change for Peace offered another opportunity to enhance the dialogue between the two neighboring countries. The participants resolved that India and Pakistan share the same eco-system and therefore the impacts of [...]
Green Growth and Climate Technology Innovation Economies around the world are reorienting towards low-carbon, green growth paths. Technology, and its deployment and diffusion, is acknowledged as a key factor in efforts to mitigate and adapt to the current and future impacts of climate change. Therefore, accelerating innovation and technology transfer is in global focus. India, [...]
Ask four Nunavummiut from Clyde River about their recent two-week trip to Nepal, and they’ll tell you the ten-thousand-kilometre journey to the Himalayan country was “a trip of a lifetime.” Hunters Laimikie Palluq and David Iqaqrialu, along with Mike Jaypoody, a young filmmaker and computer technician, and University of Colorado researcher Dr. Shari Gearheard travelled [...]
This is the eleventh article of a 15-part series on the GLOF research and mitigation project between May 2009 and March 2012. The articles will highlight latest findings on glacier, glacial lakes condition and natural hazards in the Bhutan Himalayas. Experts from the department of geology and mines (DGM), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Japan [...]
Mr. Cyril R Raphael: In this article Mr. Raphael writes the agony of mountains in general by taking an example of overall development in one of the Indian mountain states called Uttarakhand. His discourse covers the social and economic development, governance, leadership, availability of basic amenities, health, education, livelihood, effectiveness of information and communication, role [...]
Rising temperatures, reduced rainfall and excessive numbers of grazing animals are worsening desertification and drying up grasslands in western Tibet, says a Chinese geologist who has explored one of the region’s uncharted rivers. Yang Yong said he had observed desertification in parts of the upper reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River, and believes this could [...]
Sacred natural sites are areas of land or water having special spiritual significance. And the Eastern Himalayas is home to many such sites like Mount Kailash (Tibet), Lumbini (Nepal), Taksang (Bhutan), Gosaikunda (Nepal), Gurudongmar Lake (Sikkim). These sites besides having spiritual and religious significance also have biodiversity conservation value due to restrictions on cutting of [...]
Glaciers around the world may hold clues about how Earth’s remote ecosystems have been influenced by the industrial revolution. They capture large amounts of carbon-containing dissolved organic matter (DOM) that is later released to downstream ecosystems where it provides food for microorganisms at the base of the aquatic food web. While many scientists believe the [...]
Apa Sherpa and his team have just completed the first month of their epic 1,700 km journey on foot across Nepal’s Great Himalayan Trail to draw attention to the threats of global climate change and the opportunities of eco-tourism. This week, Nepali Times spoke to Apa Sherpa as he sat besides Tso Rolpa lake in [...]
A new climate change tool will not only help farmers to prepare for the future, it may also spur implementation of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Although 127 countries rushed to ratify the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, far fewer have implemented it in [...]
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Thursday announced a new global initiative to reduce short-lived climate pollutants. Working together as the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Mexico, Sweden, and the United States will conduct what Secretary Clinton described as “a targeted, practical, and highly energetic global campaign to spread solutions to the [...]
