New Report Adds Clarity to Rio+20 Agenda

New Report Adds Clarity to Rio+20 Agenda

The UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability on 30 January delivered its long-awaited report, marking a key juncture in the preparations for this year’s UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20).

The two co-chairs of the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (GSP), Finnish President Tarja Halonen and South Africa’s Jacob Zuma, presented the report - entitled “Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing” - to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at a meeting of the African Union in Addis Ababa.

The report arrived 25 years after the release of the Bruntland Report, which coined the concept of sustainable development. The new report highlights the interconnected web tying together the core elements of sustainable development.

“Today we see with increasing clarity that economic growth, environmental protection, and social equity are one and the same agenda: the sustainable development agenda,” the report reads. “We cannot make lasting progress in one without progress on all.”

The report focuses on a range of issues, such as modalities for including social and environmental issues into economies; ways of measuring progress beyond gross domestic product; developing sustainable development indicators, as well as sustainable development goals; and strengthening the role of science in the political process. The report contains 56 specific recommendations, including the need for a periodic sustainable development outlook report.

A new set of SDGs

The sustainable development goals, or SDGs, that were included in the report echo similar discussions taking place in the lead-up to Rio+20. The deadline for implementing the current Millennium Development Goals is approaching in 2015, and the report notes that the world now faces a wider set of sustainable development challenges.

Therefore, the authors support “a set of key universal sustainable development goals [that] could help to galvanize action, drawing on the experience of the Millennium Development Goals and building on their successful aspects.” These should be defined in a way that complements the Millennium Development Goals while allowing for a post-2015 successor framework, they added.

In receiving the report, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted several recommendations for further action on his part, including task forces to develop indicators to measure progress towards sustainable development and to define new Sustainable Development Goals for the post-2015 period. He stressed that sustainable development lies at the core of his second term in office.

Reactions

A number of non-governmental organisations active in the field of sustainable development, such as WWF and Oxfam, welcomed the report, while saying that it did not call for enough immediate and concrete action.

Greenpeace agreed with the report that “it’s time to end the perversity of taxpayers paying for fossil fuels which destroy our future and to admit that ‘tinkering at the edges will not do the job’ of achieving a sustainable future for all.” However, Greenpeace said that it would have preferred immediate targets, rather than SDGs with targets stretching out to 2030 in terms of their implementation.

On the other side, the Times of India reports that government officials there had taken a more cautious approach to some of the GSP recommendations, specifically with regards to Sustainable Development Goals. In their view, agreeing on a set of universal SDGs would go against the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, eliminating the ‘firewall’ between obligations on developing and developed countries - a statement that some observers say is contrary to common interpretation of last December’s outcomes at Durban’s UN climate conference.

Initial discussions on Rio+20 Outcome Document

Meanwhile, diplomats and interested stakeholders met in New York late last week for initial discussions on the Outcome Document for Rio+20. The zero draft of the Outcome Document was released on 10 January (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 23 January 2012).

Among the topics receiving strong support among delegates at the meeting were the SDGs. However, with different actors viewing the Goals in a myriad of ways, some observers say the road ahead towards concrete and workable definitions remains long.

For example, in their intervention, the African group said the SDG’s negotiation must not lead to the MDGs being left aside. The group also called for higher ambition overall in the zero draft, and stressed the importance of sustainable land management and responding to desertification as an African issue. The group also noted the continent’s particular vulnerability to climate change.

The EU said they strongly believe that countries at Rio+20 should agree to accelerate and broaden the worldwide transition towards a green economy.

The G-77 group of developing countries emphasised the need to fulfil obligations and goals undertaken at Rio twenty years ago, as well as other major conferences on sustainable development. The group also underscored the need to secure new and additional financing, as well as technology transfer.
India, in its statement, noted regarding SDGs that these should be understood as voluntary and aspirational, should not distract from the MDGs, and should respect the principles of common but differentiated responsibilities.

In an informal meeting convened by Colombia’s delegation, as a co-proponent with Guatemala, broad support was voiced for the initiative of establishing SDGs, whether at Rio or in a process initiated then. Civil society and various government representatives took the floor to endorse SDGs as a visionary idea that could speed up efforts towards sustainable development.

More: http://ictsd.org/i/news/biores/124516/

Sustainable mountain development in Bhutan highlighted in regional partnership event

Paro, Bhutan, 23 November 2011. Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho, Honourable Minster, Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, Royal Government of Bhutan, inaugurated the ICIMOD Bhutan Partners’ Day with a Marchang Ceremony this morning at Hotel Zhiwaling, Paro, Bhutan.

ICIMOD - the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development – is a regional knowledge development and learning centre based in Kathmandu, Nepal, which serves the eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. The Partners’ Day highlighted collaborative work between ICIMOD and its partners in Bhutan, which include both governmental agencies (the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests and the Ministry of Economic Affairs) and a non-governmental partner, the Royal Society for Protection of Nature (RSPN).

Following the Partner’s Day, for the next two days, ICIMOD Support Group, Programme Advisory Committee, and Board of Governors will conduct their Annual Meetings in Paro.

In his inaugural address, the Honourable Minister drew attention to the need for the countries of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas to work together on pressing issues of relevance to the whole region, notably the challenges of climate change. He also emphasised the importance of subregional analysis and cooperation to cope with these concerns. “ICIMOD provides great opportunities for member country partners to gain exposure to new technologies, methodologies, and practices in the regional context”, he said, noting that he himself had been one of the beneficiaries.

Dr Andreas Schild, Director General of ICIMOD, said that the main objective of the Bhutan Partners’ Day was to enable ICIMOD’s partners in Bhutan to present their work and share it with ICIMOD’s governing bodies and others. The partners are engaged in a host of collaborative activities in Bhutan in such areas as conservation of medicinal and aromatic plants, ecotourism, rangeland conservation, biodiversity conservation, flood management, glacial monitoring, assessment of the environmental and socio-economic impact of climate change, and geographical information systems and remote sensing. “Bhutan has been a very good testing ground for ICIMOD, especially on topics of biodiversity and ecotourism”, Dr Schild noted. “It is vital to address the balance between conservation and development”, he added. “The countries of the region have large protected areas – about 39 percent of the total area of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas – which means that their ecosystem services have to be valuated and local communities compensated for their contributions. Otherwise it will be a great challenge to keep these areas protected.”

Prior to the week’s meeting, participants visited current and proposed collaborative project sites in Bhutan including the Common Facility Centre at Bjee Zam; the Ugyen Wangchuk Institute for Conservation and Environment, Wangchuk Centennial Park, Beekepers Association, and Milk Processing Centre in Bumthang; and the black-necked crane conservation centre operated by RSPN at Phobjikha.

New Reports Identify Impacts of Climate Change on World's Highest Mountains

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA (4 December 2011)—Findings from the most comprehensive assessment to date on climate change, snow and glacier melt in Asia’s mountainous Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region—site of Mount Everest and many of the world’s tallest peaks—highlight the region’s extreme vulnerability to climate change, as rising temperatures disturb the balance of snow, ice and water, threatening millions of mountain people and 1.3 billion people living downstream in Asia’s major river basins.

The findings, published in three reports by the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), were released today during Mountain Day, a convening of mountain experts, policy makers, and climate change negotiators on the sidelines of UN climate talks.

“These reports provide a new baseline and location-specific information for understanding climate change in one of the most vulnerable ecosytems in the world,” said Dr Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). “They substantially deepen our understanding of this region – and of all mountain systems – while also pointing to the knowledge gaps yet to be filled and actions that must be taken to deal with the challenge of climate change globally and to minimise the risks from impacts locally.”

The three reports published by ICIMOD provide the most up-to-date compilation of information on the current status of climate change in the HKH region and the first authoritative data on the number and extent of glaciers and the patterns of snowfall in the world’s most mountainous region.

“The Hindu Kush-Himalayan region is like a gentle giant. While physically imposing, it is one of the most ecologically sensitive areas in the world,” said David Molden, director general of ICIMOD. “We must meet the intensity of climate change in these mountains with an equal intensity of will to mitigate and to adapt to the impacts.”

The region offers livelihoods to the 210 million people living there and indirectly provides goods and services to the 1.3 billion people living in river basins downstream who benefit from food and energy. Rich in biodiversity, the region is home to some 25,000 plant and animal species, and contains a larger diversity of forest types than the Amazon. Yet despite an abundance of natural resources in the region, poverty is rife. HKH countries account for 15 percent of the world’s total migration.

Valuable new data on glaciers and snow

The HKH region, home to 30 percent of the world’s glaciers, has been called the “Third Pole.” But there are scant data on these glaciers. One of the reports, The Status of Glaciers in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region—presenting findings of a three-year Sweden-funded research project led by ICIMOD—begins to fill in the important data gaps. Using remote sensing studies, the project was able to tally the number of glaciers in the region—more than 54,000—and measure the area covered, 60,000 km.

Of these 54,000 glaciers, however, only ten have been studied regularly to determine the net loss or gain of ice and snow (called the mass balance). That handful of studies shows a loss of mass balance, with the rate of loss roughly doubling between 1980 and 2000 and 1996 and 2005. In the Everest area, the data show a marked acceleration in the loss of glacial mass between 2002 and 2005. Glaciers appear to be shrinking in both the central and eastern Himalayas. Country-specific studies have found that depletion of glacial area over the past 30 years was 22 percent in Bhutan and 21 percent in Nepal. The clean glaciers of the Tibetan plateau are retreating at a faster rate than the glaciers of the rugged central Himalayas, which have higher debris cover; debris creates an insulating effect, slowing melting.

Although field verification and additional data collection will be needed before firmer conclusions about glacier retreat can be drawn, the data represent a significant step in bridging the knowledge gap on climate change in the HKH. “Up until now, there has been complete uncertainty on the numbers and area of glaciers and the present status of their environmental conditions in the region. This research give us a baseline from which to measure the potential impact of climate change in the region and to develop options for mitigating the impact of dynamic changes the region is expecting in the coming years,” said Basanta Shrestha from ICIMOD.

A second report, Snow-Cover Mapping and Monitoring in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas, documents the first comprehensive status report of snow cover in the region, drawn from a regional monitoring scheme. However, there was an indication of an overall decrease in snow cover over the decade in the central HKH region and overall, and a slight increase in the western and eastern parts of the region.

The HKH region’s glaciers and snow breathe life into the regional monsoon system and feed the headwaters of 10 major river systems that stretch across eight Asian countries—Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan.

Status of climate change in a vulnerable region“The HKH region is one of the most ecologically sensitive and fragile areas in the world. The effects of climate change will likely become more evident here than perhaps any where else first—and with the greatest impact—since this ecosystem supports the livelihoods of more people than any other coherent ecosystem in the world,” said the Hon. Lyonpo Dr. Pema Gyamtsho, Minister of Agriculture and Forests and also Minister In-charge of Environment of Bhutan. “Meeting this challenge will require increased regional cooperation between governments and other actors. This research, which involved eight countries in the HKH region, represents the kind of cooperation needed to meet the climate challenge.”

The third report, Climate Change in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas: The State of Current Knowledge, considers the mass of data and published studies in three major areas: climate and hydrology; biodiversity and ecosystems; and atmospheric changes. It also points out the limits of current data and the short time frame of most records (few extending more than 50 years). In addition, climate-related studies in the region suffer from a lack of repeat studies, permanent plots, field validation, and peer review. Nonetheless, the report provides a snapshot of changes occurring in the HKH region.

The HKH region is one of the world’s hotspots for global warming. The rise in temperature has been greater at higher altitudes and more pronounced during the cooler months than in the warmer months. This imbalance narrows the seasonal variation in temperature, potentially favoring some plant species over others and already having impacts on agriculture. Warming across the region is greater than the global average of 0.74°C over the past 100 years. However, this change is not evenly distributed. It is most pronounced in higher altitude areas like the central Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. In Lhasa, for example, temperatures increased by 1.35°C between 1950 and 1980.

Impacts of warming and melting in the HKH

Two major land use systems in the region are changing. In mountain forests, tree lines and species are shifting to higher elevations, and species already living at the highest elevations may have nowhere to go. Meanwhile, the vast grasslands of the Tibetan Plateau are being steadily degraded.

Increases in glacial melting are projected to limit the natural water storage provided by expanses of snow and ice and to heighten the risk of glacial lake outburst floods. Mass losses from glaciers and accelerating reductions in snow cover are expected to ultimately reduce water supplies and hydropower potential. Changes in the seasonality of flows in river basins supplied by melt water from snow and ice are also predicted. Droughts will likely affect greater areas, and with dry spells there will need to be greater reliance on irrigation, even as water sources become more restricted, according to the authors. The risk of flooding is also increasing with increased variability of climate.

Agriculture is very sensitive to climate change, which can affect temperature, precipitation, length of growing season, the timing of climate events relative to crop development, and changes in atmospheric CO₂ concentration. However, the report notes the difficulty of projecting the impact of climate change on agriculture, as it occurs along with many other drivers.

This compilation of information is a vital first step. “From here, greater focus needs to be put on providing people and governments with options for climate-resilient development,” said Molden. “These include adaptation and mitigation measures such as reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, water storage measures, and regional cooperation around policies for managing water for energy, agriculture and development.”

For copies of the reports, photos or more information, please contact: 

Michelle Geis at +27 76 5856486 or mgeis@burnesscommunications.com

Jeff Haskins at +254 729 871 422 or jhaskins@burnesscommunications.com

Editor's note: To access the reports, background materials, and photos, please visit: http://www.icimod.org/mountainday.

Women Most at Risk from Climate Disasters, Says UN Report

Investment in Green Technologies Can Improve Women’s Climate Adaptation Capacity & Livelihood Opportunities

Increase in Human Trafficking Associated with Climate-related Disasters

Durban / Nairobi,  6 December 2011 - Women, particularly those living in mountain regions in developing countries, are facing disproportionately high risks to their livelihoods and health from climate change, as well as associated risks such as human trafficking, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Investing in low carbon, resource efficient green technologies, water harvesting and fuel wood alternatives can strengthen climate change adaptation and improve women’s livelihoods, says the report, Women at the Frontline of Climate Change: Gender Risks and Hopes, released at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP17) in Durban, South Africa,

Impacts of climate change, such as droughts, floods and mud slides are affecting a growing number of people worldwide. From 1999–2008, floods affected almost one billion people in Asia, 28 million in the Americas, 22 million in Africa and four million in Europe.

In parts of Asia and Africa, where the majority of the agricultural workforce are female, the impacts of such disasters have a major impact on women’s income, food security and health. Women are responsible for about 6 per cent of household food production in Asia and 75 per cent in Africa.

“Women often play a stronger role than men in the management of ecosystem services and food security. Hence, sustainable adaptation must focus on gender and the role of women if it is to become successful”, said UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director,  Achim Steiner.

“Women’s voices, responsibilities and knowledge on the environment and the challenges they face will need to be made a central part of Governments’ adaptive responses to a rapidly changing climate.” he added.

According to the report, women in communities vulnerable to climate change are often more likely than men to lose their lives during natural disasters, due to poor access to coping strategies such as basic lifesaving skills or cultural factors that restrict the mobility of women.

Human Trafficking & Climate Disasters

The reports also highlights how organized human trafficking, especially that of women, is emerging as a potentially serious risk associated with climate-related disasters; as floods or landslides disrupt social safety nets, leaving more women isolated and vulnerable.

In Nepal, estimates based on emerging data from anti- trafficking organizations, such as Maiti Nepal, suggest that trafficking may have increased from an estimated 3,000-5,000 people (mostly women, as well as children and youth of both sexes between the ages of 7 and 21) in the 1990s to current levels of 12,000–20,000 per year.  Approximately 30 percent of these end up in forced labour and 70 per cent are exploited in the sex industry.

The data suggests that human trafficking increases by around 20 to30 per cent during disasters. The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) has also warned that climate disasters may increase the exposure of women to trafficking as families are disrupted and livelihoods are lost.

Role of Women in Boosting Food Security and Strengthening Adaptation

Research by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) shows that providing women, who make up around 40 to 50 per cent of the work force in agriculture, with the same access as men to productive resources and technologies could increase yields on farms managed by women by between 20 and 30 per cent.

This could substantially improve food security by raising agricultural output in developing countries by up to 4 per cent. 

However, several dynamics make adaptation more difficult for some women due to a lack of access to formal education, poverty, discrimination in food distribution, food insecurity, limited access to resources, exclusion from policy-and decision-making institutions and processes and other forms of social marginalization.

The UNEP report focuses in particular on women in Asia’s mountain regions. With more than half of South Asia’s cereal production taking place downstream from the Hindu Kush Himalaya, the impacts of climate change, such as droughts or flooding, on food security and livelihoods are keenly felt – especially by women – in this region and beyond. 

Women on the Frontline of Climate Change

Due to the key roles women play in agriculture, forest economies, biodiversity and other sectors, particularly in developing countries, designing adaptation programmes with a strong focus on gender equity is vital for successful climate change mitigation.

This is among several recommendations put forward in the UNEP report, including greater investments in green, labour-saving technologies such as irrigation systems or water harvesting, which can improve the quality of life and increase the productivity of female farm workers, while also benefiting the environment, through replacing fuel wood often collected by women with cleaner fuel alternatives, for example.

Notes to Editors

The report ‘Women at the Frontline of Climate Change: Gender Risks and Hopes’  can be accessed at www.unep.org or at www.grida.no including high and low resolution graphics for free use in publications.

The report was prepared by UNEP’s GRID Arendal / Rapid response Unit in cooperation with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and  INTERPOL.

For more information, please contact:

Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson/Head of Media, on Tel +254 20 7623084, Mobile +254 733 632755, E-mail: nick.nuttall@unep.org

UNEP Newsdesk/Nairobi on Tel. +254 20 762 5022, Email : unepnewsdesk@unep.org

Celebrating International Mountain Day 2011 - Message from the Director General, 'Mountain Forests: Binding Nature, Culture, and Development'

Kathmandu, Nepal, 11 December 2011. ICIMOD’s celebration of International Mountain Day this year highlights mountain forests. The day’s theme of ‘Mountains and Forests‘ bridges with the International Year of Forests 2011, which seeks to revive global consciousness among forest-dependent communities, the public, and policy makers of the central role of forests in addressing a wide range of conservation, socioeconomic, and climate change challenges. Annual global forest loss of 13 million hectares and massive forest degradation worldwide contribute to about one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. The loss of more than 4 million hectares of primary forest each year decimates biodiversity and constrains the livelihoods of millions dependent on diverse forest ecosystems across the planet. 

One-fourth of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region is covered by forests. In combination with other ecosystems (e.g., rangelands, agriculture, wetlands), the region’s forests deliver a wide range of goods and services including water, food, household energy, timber, and fodder. They provide opportunities for recreation and spiritual inspiration. Thus, for the Himalayan people, forests are a source of livelihoods, culture, and development. Their use of many forest plant and animal species demonstrates the importance that mountain communities place on forest biodiversity. Furthermore, the role of forests in adapting to and mitigating the impact of climate change is increasingly recognised. 

Despite the immense environmental, socioeconomic, and cultural value of the region’s forest ecosystems and the wide range of national policies, climate-related initiatives, and development strategies created to conserve them, the region’s forests have become degraded and depleted over the years. Nearly two-thirds of the forest cover in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region is prone to forest fires, largely human-induced. Only three of the eight countries of the region (Bhutan, China, and India) have reported forest cover increase in recent years, mainly through forest plantation. Swelling human needs and haphazard development initiatives have not been matched by sustainable forest management, indispensable to secure and sustain forest environmental services and goods. Loss of forest cover affects biodiversity, reduces agricultural productivity, and constrains ecosystem services in the region, threatening the sustainable livelihoods of mountain people. 

ICIMOD with its regional partners is making concerted efforts to meet the objectives of the International Year of Forests 2011. ICIMOD contributes to sustainable forest management by developing solutions in light of complex drivers of change and promoting these through knowledge sharing activities in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan Region. ICIMOD aims to raise global awareness through events such as World Environment Day and in preparatory work for Rio+20, by highlighting mountain forests’ role in promoting green economy and in mitigating and adapting to climate change.

On this year’s International Mountain Day, ICIMOD would like to send a loud and clear message to regional and national policy makers and practitioners, as well as to grassroots communities: Improvements and innovations are needed in governance and adaptive management of forests and landscapes, to secure and sustain forest ecosystems. The continued supply of mountain ecosystem goods and services to millions in the region is essential for poverty reduction, economic growth, and the environment.

Best wishes to all on this special day.

David Molden
Director General, ICIMOD