A Vision for Addressing Climate Change Risks and Vulnerabilities in the Himalayas
A Regional Climate Change Conference
31 August - 1 September 2009
Kathmandu, Nepal
The Government of Nepal hosted the South Asia Regional Climate Change Conference: "From Kathmandu to Copenhagen: A Vision for Addressing Climate Change Risks and Opportunities in the Himalaya Region" on August 31 - September 1, 2009. The Right Honorable Prime Minister of Nepal, Mr. Madhav Kumar Nepal, inaugurated the conference. The conference was attended by Ministers, members of the parliament and the Constituent Assembly and high level government representatives from seven countries of the South Asia region namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and representative of Kyrgyz Republic. Other participants were from academic and research institutions, non-governmental organizations, development partners and national and international media.
The conference aimed at providing a forum for the countries of the South Asia Himalayas and other countries in the region to share knowledge and experience about common risks that climate change brings and the immense development opportunities that could be fostered, and developing a common message to the global community regarding the climate change challenges faced by the region.
The Kathmandu conference stressed the need to translate the principles of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities and historical responsibility of the developed countries as envisaged in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) into operational practice. It noted that the world had spent more on corporate/financial bailouts than on promoting sustainability and, least of all, on addressing climate change.
The South Asia Regional Climate Change Conference states that:
1. The South Asia including Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region is a climate change hot spot that influences the lives of half of the world's population. Climate change in this region will affect peoples and ecosystems from the mountains to the coast to the sea.
2. The South Asia region is highly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change and is characterized by critical knowledge gaps, especially of mountain ecosystems within and across its constituent units.
3. The countries of South Asia need to accelerate sustainable social and economic growth in accordance with the principles and provisions of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
4. The South Asian countries must therefore come together to enhance their climate change responses including through the generation of required data and adaptation at all levels with incremental adaptive steps meshing with agreed regional and global efforts to address the impacts of climate change. The enhanced climate change responses require additional financial and technical resources.
5. Water resources are particularly impacted by climate change and immediate and urgent actions are required to address these challenges through management practices including basin-wide approaches at appropriate level, and provisions of additional financial and technical resources in accordance with the provisions of the UNFCCC.
6. The inhabitants of the South Asian region are among those likely to be worst affected by climate change. Special strategies need to be evolved and additional resources provided to address the specific vulnerable communities of the region.
7. The countries of South Asia need to address the challenges of climate change through collaborative actions aimed at enhancing capacity building including activities regarding data collection and sharing and research about climate change impact through SAARC and other institutions as agreed.
8. Financing mechanism on adaptation and technologies should sufficiently meet the urgent and immediate needs of financial requirements of the South Asia region in a predictable, easy and direct manner. Finance must come from Annex 1 Parties to the UNFCCC.
9. Recognition and payment for credits from the forestry sector must include a comprehensive approach to sustainable management and conservation of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
10. Development and transfer of clean technologies including capacity building should take place with a view to ensure green development. Transfer of technologies should be provided by Annex 1 countries to non-Annex I countries and they should not be constrained by the high upfront costs of intellectual property rights. Appropriate indigenous technologies should also be promoted through channeling of funds to developing countries in accordance with the Convention's provisions. Both public and private sector should be encouraged in addressing the impacts of climate change through provisions of clean technologies.
The South Asia Regional Conference on Climate Change appreciates the initiative of the Kyrgyz Republic to hold the Global Ministerial Conference of the mountain countries in 2010 to discuss on issues of cooperation in the post-Copenhagen period.