Temperature rise could melt half of HKH glaciers: ICIMOD

Kathmandu, Feb. 4

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has warned that a two-degree temperature rise could melt half of glaciers in the Hindu-Kush Himalaya (HKH) region and destabilise Asia’s rivers.

A comprehensive new study of the HKH region- the Third Pole and home to Mt. Everest, K2 and other world’s highest peaks-- has found that even the most ambitious Paris Agreement goal of global warming to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century would lead to a 2.1 degree spike in temperature and melting of one-third of the region’s glaciers.

The glaciers are critical water source to some 250 million mountain dwellers and 1.65 billion others living in the river valleys below.

The study warned that if global climate efforts fail, current emissions would lead to five degrees in warming and a loss of two-thirds of region’s glaciers by 2100.

“This is the climate crisis you haven’t heard of,” said Philippus Wester, lead author of the report.

“Global warming is on track to transform the frigid, glacier-covered mountain peaks of the HKH cutting across eight countries to bare rocks in a little less than a century. Impacts on people in the region, already one of the most fragile and hazard-prone mountain regions of the world, will range from worsened air pollution to an increase in extreme weather events.”

But it’s the projected reductions in pre-monsoon river flows and changes in the monsoon that will hit the hardest, throwing urban water systems and food and energy production off kilter, he said.   

Styled after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, the ICIMOD claimed that the Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment is the first and most authoritative study of its kind to provide an assessment of one of the world’s most significant, yet often overlooked mountain regions.

According to the ICIMOD, developed over five years, the report includes insight by more than 350 researchers and policy experts from 22 countries and 185 organisations. With 210 authors, 20 review editors and 125 external reviewers, it provides an unprecedented insight into the region’s distinct environment, people and wildlife.

“The massive size and global significance of the HKH region is indisputable, yet this is the first report to lay down in definitive detail the region’s critical importance to the well-being of billions and its alarming vulnerability, especially in the face of climate change,” said David Molden, Director General of ICIMOD.

The HKH region covers 3,500 kilometers across Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan.

Nestled in its record-breaking peaks, glaciers feed 10 of the world’s most important river systems, including the Ganges, Indus, Yellow, Mekong and Irrawaddy, and directly or indirectly supply billions of people with food, energy, clean air and incomes.

Additionally, the HKH has a huge hydropower potential of 500 gigawatts, enough to power half a billion homes in the region.

“We need to start thinking of mountain regions as climate hotspots worthy of urgent attention, investments and solutions,” Dasho Rinzin Dorji, ICIMOD board member from Bhutan, said. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 5 February 2019.