Accelerated warming in the Himalaya is a threat to the billion or so people living downstream, and ongoing ice loss could seriously affect the world’s freshwater supply and drive up sea levels.
Climate change and mountains is therefore an issue of critical importance not just for the Himalaya but also for the rest of the world. COP28 in Dubai was the first of climate conferences to explicitly recognise the issue in an outcome text.
This lays the ground for further progress this year, yet faster action on global emissions and climate finance remains key to safeguarding the future of these culturally diverse, highly vulnerable regions.
Rapid ice sheet melt poses the threat of catastrophic sea-level rise, with global mean sea levels already up 20cm. Ice sheet and glacier mass loss contributed 42% to global mean sea level rise between 2006 and 2018.
If mountains continue to lose ice, it’s not just local habitats and economies that will suffer, the resulting rising seas will also threaten small islands around the world.
Ice sheet loss is also accelerating climate change in a deadly loop. Thawing permafrost release planet-heating gases.
Meanwhile particles of pollution that darken snow are altering the earth’s reflective quality (albedo). Areas that once bounced the sun’s radiation into space are starting to absorb that energy.
Read Also: The climate crisis is a water crisis in the Himalaya, Sonia Awale
As a result, warming intensifies, melting speeds up, and more dark areas are exposed in a continuous cycle. Think Machapuchre or even Everest.
As the impacts from these changes are felt broadly around the world, this must unite climate-vulnerable nations spanning highlands to islands in a call for more urgent climate action. The 2030 climate targets set by countries lead to a 2.5°C rise in global temperatures by the end of the century. Such levels of warming would be devastating to the mountains and the world.
As countries prepare to announce new 2035 climate targets in their updated NDCs, these must align with the 1.5°C target. Countries should also ensure their ambitions are supported by stronger 2030 targets, creating a credible path to 2035.
COP28’s renewed call to update targets by the end of 2024 in line with the Paris Agreement’s temperature goal was an essential lifeline for mountain countries.
The voice of mountainous regions rang through more strongly at COP28 than at any other climate talks. UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ decision to visit the Nepal Himalaya on his way to COP28 and witness first-hand the impact of climate change on mountains brought global attention to specific vulnerabilities of a region predicted to lose 36% of its glaciers by the end of the century even in a 1.5°C warming scenario.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal also convened a high-level event on mountains at COP28, which drew commitments and urgent calls for action. Experts and senior officials highlighted the critical need for immediate measures to reduce emissions, mobilise resources and implement suitable adaptation strategies in mountains.
Inside the negotiation rooms, the coordination between three key climate leaders in particular stood out. Kyrgyz Republic (the only country to enshrine its net-zero target into law), Bhutan (the world’s only carbon-negative country), and Nepal (with exemplary initiatives on clean energy, forest conservation, and electric mobility) featured prominently in formal meetings to address upstream-downstream impacts, with support from downstream countries like Bangladesh.