On the question of whether this GLOF was linked to human-caused climate change, HUC Fellow Jakob Steiner added:
“I don’t need an attribution study to tell you that this glacial lake is linked to a changing climate because it would not have formed if you didn’t have climate change.”
He added that, with continued global emissions, there will be a limit to the degree that Himalayan communities can adapt:
“We don’t have the money or the capacity to keep putting in these early warning systems, while we keep putting more CO2 in the atmosphere. We have to change something at the source. There are many culprits in this murder.”
With global temperatures certain to rise, major flood events of greater magnitude and frequency will occur, particularly in the Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH). It is therefore of existential importance that the chasm between science and policymaking is bridged.
HKH Science-Policy Forum, which held its second event, dedicated to the climate and cryosphere crisis, hosted around 100 policy makers, scientists, and donor agency and civil society representatives. Organisations representing other mountainous regions, such as the Alps, the Carpathians, and the Arctic, brought valuable advice on procedural and administrative guidelines.
Jamyang Jamtsho Wangchuk, renowned for his role in the movie "Seven Years in Tibet," embarks on a cycling expedition spanning the Himalayas to reach COP28 in Dubai. His mission is to shed light on the repercussions of climate change. The documentary captures his extraordinary voyage across the breathtaking terrains of Bhutan, where he symbolically carries water from the melting glaciers. This symbolic gesture aims to draw attention to the pressing necessity of safeguarding our planet from the destructive consequences of climate change.
Mountains are highly significant regions in the context of climate change and sustainable development. They lie at the intersection of accelerated warming and large populations that depend directly or indirectly on them. They are regions of high biological and cultural diversity and provide vital goods and services to people living in and around mountain regions and in downstream areas. Building on theIPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), Chapter 2, ‘High MountainAreas’, of the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) (Hock et al., 2019), and the IPCC Working Group I contribution to AR6 (IPCC, 2021), this Cross-Chapter Paper(CCP) assesses new evidence on observed and projected climate change impacts in mountain regions, their associated key risks and adaptation measures.
This open access volume is the first comprehensive assessment of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region. It comprises important scientific research on the social, economic, and environmental pillars of sustainable mountain development and will serve as a basis for evidence-based decision-making to safeguard the environment and advance people’s well-being. The compiled content is based on the collective knowledge of over 300 leading researchers, experts and policymakers, brought together by the Hindu Kush Himalayan Monitoring and Assessment Programme (HIMAP) under the coordination of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).