Stephen Bailey: You need a bit of height to appreciate the size of a brick factory. You need to get close to appreciate the human cost. From a hill over Duwakot you can see people labouring in the grey mud beneath the towering chimney.  Down in the factory you can see the weather beaten faces,

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Himalayan Times: Climate change has always remained as one of the hot topics of discussion amongst the environmentalists, governments, policymakers as well as other bodies concerned. As per Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increase in global average air and ocean

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CDKN: Pakistan is one of the lowest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the world: it accounts for just 0.8% of total global emissions, and ranks 135th in terms of per capita emissions.  Unfortunately, Pakistan is also one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world.  Over the past 20 years, 141 extreme events

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ACT Alliance members from eight Asian countries met last week in Nepal to share their experiences and develop strategies on how to better influence governments to address climate change. Some of the countries that suffer the most visible and tangible immediate effects of climate change are located in Asia. Foezullah from ACT Bangladesh explains that

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Science Daily: A team of researchers led by Associate Professor Edward L. Webb of the National University of Singapore (NUS) is calling for the global adoption of a method to identify areas that are vulnerable to sea-level rise. The method, which utilises a simple, low-cost tool, is financially and technically accessible to every country with

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CDKN, in collaboration with partners across Asia, Africa and Latin America, is pleased to announce a new publication on Climate resilience and disaster risk management. It presents recent results from CDKN-supported projects to assess vulnerability and mainstream climate resilience into development planning. Our stories from India, Ghana and Colombia illustrate the importance of involving diverse

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Tribune: “We have suggested building several upstream water reservoirs in Pakistan to prevent floods. We are also examining reforestation as it slows down the process of floods and subsequent droughts,” Marius Keller, an adaptation consultant with the International Institute of Sustainable Development, said speaking to Lahore University of Management Sciences students on Monday. Keller presented

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Scientific American: Most of my day job involves simulating the behavior of molecules like drugs and proteins using computer models. The field is more an art than a science, partially because the systems that are being modeled are too complex and ill-understood to succumb to exact solutions. Success often depends on experience and intuition gained

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Telegraph India: World Bank, which is funding a $150-million project on integrated flood and erosion management in the Northeast, has called for a multi-sector approach towards management of water resources in the Brahmaputra basin. The bank’s suggestion is meant to ensure that the states involved benefit from the risks and opportunities associated with a multi-sector

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EBA: The government of Nepal, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) jointly launched the ‘Ecosystem based Adaptation in mountain ecosystem in Nepal (EbA)’ Project on the 16th August 2012. The project aims at implementing an emerging approach to help people to adapt to

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The Washington Post has updated the story to include climate as a reason for variability in water supplies. While the original did not discuss climate change, the addition of this in the fourth paragraph, plus the inclusion of a quote from former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh now complete the story. We applaud them for updating the story. The

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CNN: Australia’s recent experience of more fierce and frequent floods, fires and droughts is likely only to intensify, a report says, unless the world moves fast to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. Australians have received a stark warning that climate change is already increasing the intensity and frequency of extreme weather, posing serious and growing

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Eldis: This paper analyses the connections between climate change impacts, ecosystem degradation and increased risk of climate-related disasters. It defines the central role of ecosystem management in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction (DRR) and assesses the challenges for enhanced ecosystem management for climate change adaptation and DRR. Given the increasing importance of ecosystem

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Scidev.Net: With extra funding and empowering legislation Pakistan’s autonomous Global Climate Change Impact Centre (GCCIC) is set to take on a regional and international role in climate research. Legislation passed this month (6 March) is expected to transform the GCCIC into a centre capable of providing data for decision making and formulating policy in areas

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Tribune: Pakistan’s only dedicated climate change research centre is going to partner with Italian experts to identify climate change adaptation measures. The Global Change Impact Studies Centre (GCISC), which recently became an autonomous body by act of parliament, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ev-K2-CNR, an Italian research organisation that has worked in Pakistan’s

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Earthweek: Climate change has caused some villages in northeastern India to become flooded, and in some cases, washed away entirely due to more extreme rainfall over the last few decades. The trend has caused some rivers across the region to migrate from their established channels that humans have used for thousands of years. These roving

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Times of India: Non-life insurers are working on a catastrophic fund to provide relief to victims of natural calamities such as cyclone, floods, earthquake and tsunami. Insurers are in talks with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and state governments to set up a fund that will take care of providing immediate relief to victims.

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IPS: Drought has dramatically increased as a consequence of climate change. Most countries react to it only after it has occurred, but don’t have national policies to prevent it. The high-level meeting on national drought policies in Geneva this week is trying to match scientific knowledge with political awareness. “Drought is a natural phenomenon, but

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IISD: Reports summarizing the risks associated with climate variability and change in selected sectors, ecosystems and/or regions in three African and four Latin American and Caribbean countries are now available. African reports: Kenya: Climate risk management for malaria control in Kenya: the case of the western Kenyan highlands Niger: Sustainable wetland management in the face

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Preventionweb: Representatives of UN agencies, funds and programmes completed an action plan this week that will accelerate the integration of disaster risk reduction into all UN country level operations in response to the rising levels of disruption to millions of lives each year from disasters. The United Nations Plan of Action Plan on Disaster Risk

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The Association ‘Mountain territories of Dagestan’, Mountain Partnership member from Russian Federation, has organized the drawing competition ‘Mountains through children’s eyes’, under the support of Mountain Partnership Secretariat, within its celebration acivities of the International Mountain Day 2012. More than 300 drawings were received from the children and the best ones were selected for the

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Climate Conversations – Is acceptance of climate change adaptation an admission that mitigation has failed? The question of whether accepting and acting on climate change adaptation amounts to an admission of defeat for climate change mitigation was the most pressing topic discussed by climate experts on a panel this week at an event sponsored by The

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The Tribune: The state of compilation of environmental data in Pakistan remained extremely poor, but with the introduction of the $2.1 million National Environment Information Management System (NEIMS), things might improve. The NEIM, a collaborative project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the climate change ministry, with the support from the Netherlands government,

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Tribune: A report commissioned by the government in conjunction with the World Wildlife Fund found last year that Pakistan was among the 10 countries likely to be most badly hit by global climate change. Pakistan is in a region where temperature increases are higher, which will affect precipitation and vegetation. Already we have seen the

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PRI: Lakes high in the world’s mountains are becoming increasingly dangerous to the towns that have sprouted up near them. The lakes are prone to floods, typically caused when the mountain glaciers that feed them shed a chunk of ice and rock, forcing thousands of gallons over the banks. The hamlet of Carhuaz, in Peru’s

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ICIMOD: The Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) is a mountain system of extremes with great influence over the Asian continent. The system stretches 3,500 km over eight countries, from Afghanistan in the west to Myanmar in the east. It is the world’s largest and highest mountain system, with more than 30 peaks measuring over 7,600 m.

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The GLOBE Climate Legislation Study THIRD EDITION. A Review of Climate Change Legislation in 33 Countries. On 14 January 2013 the Global Legislators Organisation (GLOBE International) released the 3rd Climate Legislation Study – produced in partnership with the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics. This is the most comprehensive research project that

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The News: Widespread rains and snowfall that claimed more than 33 precious lives in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Islamabad was essentially due to climate change, experts told The News. “If you look at the weather in the last six to eight weeks in Islamabad and the northern parts of the country, you will find

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Down to Earth: Ugyen Tshewang, secretary, National Environment Commission of Bhutan, speaks to Ankur Paliwal on the effects on climate change and how the country is trying to cope with it. Tshewang was in the New Delhi to attend the recently concluded Delhi Sustainable Development Summit. How is Climate Change is affecting Bhutan? Our contribution

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Scedev.net: Disaster warnings can be fast, but how can we also ensure their accuracy and credibility, ask Rohan Samarajiva and Nalaka Gunawardene. The challenge with disaster warnings is to make the best possible decisions quickly using imperfect information. With lives and livelihoods at stake, there is much pressure to get it right. But one can’t

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CHI: In recent disasters in Indian Himalayan region we lost many human lives, livestock population, agriculture land, livelihood opportunities and huge infrastructure overnight.  The most affected states due to these calamities in India are Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Sikkim and part of West Bengal. The flood in Kosi and Indus basins in Nepal and Pakistan

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UNEarthNews: I was in the midst of writing an article on disaster preparedness when disaster struck. Hurricane Sandy was barreling up the East Coast. Living right by a river, I had to get ready. Fortunately, my affluent coastal Connecticut town had lots of resources. Instructions were issued often on multiple media platforms. It was easy

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SciDev.net: Disaster response and relief efforts are becoming more dynamic and decentralised with the development of web-based geospatial technologies, says a study. Researchers writing in Disasters evaluated the experiences of Harvard University’s Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA) during the Sichuan and Haiti earthquake responses in 2008 and 2010, respectively. They found that the conventional ‘top-down’

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National Geographic: Widespread heatwaves. Spiking temperatures. Uncontrollable wildfires. Unforeseen floods. Oppressive droughts. These kinds of extreme events are becoming the norm and, according to a growing body of scientific literature, are obvious signs of ongoing climate change. This literature includes the “State of the Climate in 2011” report released by the United States’ National Climatic Data

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The Tribune: Research, awareness campaigns and the integration of disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies in planning and development are essential to help Pakistan cope with future climate change challenges. These were the recommendations of a recently conducted survey by Save the Children to assess the impacts of climate change on children and their families in

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Business Recorder: A two-day regional conference under the theme “climate change and disaster risk management in South Asia: exploring commonalities and realising joint frame works” will be held here on January 29 and 30. The conference is being organised by Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) with the focus on engaging policy makers,

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NCCARF: This project examines the likely impacts on the built environment of increased intensities in weather-related natural hazard events, in order to identify the possibilities of using the regulatory mechanisms of building construction, housing insurance and planning in climate change adaptation. The research findings are restricted to these three aspects of the built environment, and

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Ethics and Climate: Climate Change Is  Real, Yet The US Press Is Not Reporting On The Urgency and Magnitude of the Problem. One can tell by how climate change policies are being debated around much of the world that few people, including many very educated people,  understand the scale and urgency of the problem now

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Alertnet: Abdul Jabbar was in his house in the Bindu Gol valley of Pakistan’s northern Chitral district when a glacial lake burst through the ridge holding it back high above. “We felt the ground shaking and heard the roar of the water, and we ran out of our homes,” he said. The 2010 flood destroyed

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Science Daily: Global Warming Less Extreme Than Feared? New Estimates from a Norwegian Project On Climate Calculations. Policymakers are attempting to contain global warming at less than 2°C. New estimates from a Norwegian project on climate calculations indicate this target may be more attainable than many experts have feared. Climate researcher Caroline Leck of Stockholm

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Sevensisterspost: A new study has confirmed the worst fears of Assam’s anti-dam activists who are opposed to building mega hydel projects in the highly-seismic Northeast, known for its rich biodiversity. Unprecedented dam building in the Indian Himalayas holds serious consequences for biodiversity and could pose a threat to human lives and livelihoods, a team of

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NYTimes: WHETHER in Davos or almost anywhere else that leaders are discussing the world’s problems, they are missing by far the biggest issue: the rapidly deteriorating global environment and its ability to support civilization. The situation is pretty much an endgame. Unless pressing issues of the biology of the planet and of climate change generated

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NY Times: A multichannel mammoth stretching up to 10 kilometers (six miles) wide, the Brahmaputra River in Assam causes havoc every year when it floods. Now climate change is intensifying the hydrological cycle. Brian Orland, a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow, is starting a nine-month study on climate change adaptation along the Brahmaputra River, where the environment challenges

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SciDevnet: Data presented at a seminar on climate change in Pakistan highlighted trends where this South Asian country, which stretches from high, snow-capped mountains to a deltaic coast, could be in for a sharp rise in average temperatures and extremely erratic weather. The seminar, held last month (29 December), analysed data in a new report

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Zee News: Unprecedented dam building in the Indian Himalaya holds serious consequences for biodiversity and could pose a threat to human lives and livelihoods, researchers have found. The team was led by Professor Maharaj K. Pandit from the University Scholars Programme at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Prof Pandit, who also holds a courtesy

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World Bank: The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved funding of a project that aims to enhance government capacity to mitigate climate-related hazards in Nepal by improving the accuracy and timeliness of weather and flood forecasts and warnings for climate-vulnerable communities. Funded by a Strategic Climate Fund grant of US$16 million, and a

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Springer: There has been some degree of reluctance in the past to consider disaster risk management within the mainstream of adaptation to climate variability and climate change. However, there is now wide recognition of the need to incorporate disaster risk management concerns in dealing with such phenomena. There is also a growing awareness of the

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WHEN the worst drought in 60 years hit America’s corn belt this summer, many people wondered if it was caused by climate change. It is too early to say much about such a recent episode but various studies have attributed earlier individual heatwaves or drought to global warming, notably those in Europe in 2003, Russia

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SciDev.net: To engage people in early action we must understand their experience, behaviour and constraints, says disaster policy expert Andrew Collins. Disaster predictions have significant uncertainty that tends to undermine efforts to act on early warnings. In Bangladesh, for example, where there are extensive climatic hazards, people risk their lives by not taking refuge in

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CSE: Study quantifies the impact of hydel projects on the ecology of the mountain range. THE Himalayas are virtually under bombardment—of dams. They would have the highest dam density in the world, with over a thousand water reservoirs dotting the mountain range in India, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan, over the next few years. These projects

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Alternet: Global temperatures may be climbing at a rate too fast for our forests and its biodiversity to adapt, a scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) warned after the World Bank predicted a 4°C warming of the planet if policymakers continue to be apathetic about greenhouse gas emissions. “The long-term effects will

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WoTR: Recommendation to the Adaptation committee. Adaptation has been given short shrift – in terms of priority, focus, and resources, particularly finance. In spite of the much greater attention on mitigation, it has not delivered; nor is it likely that it will. This makes adaptation even more important an issue. Because of near-inaction on mitigation

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Nature: Changes could affect shipping lanes and beach erosion — and make Australian surfers happy. Wave heights will increase in seas off Indonesia, Antarctica and Australia’s east coast, and will decrease in some other regions, an international collaboration reports today. The study looked into the effects of climate change on waves in the coming century,

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Contributing Editor Dr. Jordan Schaul and distinguished wildlife biologist and professor Dr. Michael Hutchins discuss the current and anticipated impact of climate change on wildlife species around the globe in an exclusive Nat Geo News Watch interview. Jordan: In collaboration with the National Wildlife Federation, and Arizona State University scientists, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) recently

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Climate change is an emerging threat for our planet. It has manifested in disasters of impulsive frequency and intensity in different parts of the world. Pakistan is facing large number of impacts resulting from climate change. The floods of 2010 and cyclones of 1997 and 2007 are harsh reminders of the fact that we are

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World Bank: -While South Asia is among the most densely populated regions in the world, it is also one of the least urbanized. -Its cities across all countries increasingly face development stresses in terms of congestion, pollution, and quality-of-life issues. -Students shared their vision of green growth in South Asian cities of the future at

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Dr. Dambaru Ballab Kattel was interviewed by representative from Telegraph Nepal about the Glaciers in this mountain countries and what is his reading about glacial related phenomena. TQ1: How closely are you following the unfolding political events of Nepal-your own motherland? Kattel: Thecitizens of Nepal  living far from their country for a certain time (months

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Business Bhutan: Considered one of the biggest hydropower projects in the country, the 2,560 megawatt Sankosh hydropower project, is all set to get a green signal from the Indian government, but the commencement of the joint venture project will mean serious implications on the environment. According to the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report for Sankosh

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Daily Mail UK: The bone-chilling cold in the Capital and similar extreme weather events across the country over the past few years are more than just freak happenings. Consider the following: In July 2005, four days of continuous rain left Mumbai completely flooded. In 1999, a super cyclone ravaged Orissa, while the country came under

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My Republica: Nepal is chairing the Least Developed Countries (LDC) group under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for the year 2013 and 2014. Recently, in one of the programs organised at the side-lines of the 18th Conference of Parties (COP 18) meeting held in Doha, Qatar, the outgoing chair Gambia handed

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