Honourable Minister of Environment and the Chief Guest Mr. Thakur Prasad Sharma, Honourable Vice-chair of the National Planning Commission Dr. Yubaraj Khatiwada, Your Excellency Ambassador Dr. Andrew Hall, other distinguished speakers, distinguished journalist colleagues Mr. John Vidal and other media friends and colleagues from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and colleagues from DFID, British Embassy and other distinguished invited guests, ladies and gentlemen,
South Asia as we know is a diverse sub-region with diverse environment and geography ranging from the highest point in the world ‘the himalayas’ in Nepal to the low lying points of the rising seas in Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and so on. The countries in South Asia like Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and India despite other illustrious histories have hardly a history of polluting the atmosphere that is our global common property. The biggest challenge of the 21st century that is facing us “the climate change” is not a doing of our past in South Asia. Barring our great emerging neighbour India, the other small South Asian countries hardly have a share in polluting the air, atmosphere, our global common property. That’s the good news.
The bad news however is that climate has already changed and in the past few years in the mountains and the coasts we have in the South Asian expanse, we have already been subject and witness to adverse impacts of climate change. The mountain glaciers are melting and the sea levels are rising.
Flies are flying and mosquitoes are buzzing on Everest these days, glaciers have melted and flooded the villages in the mountains, cyclones and floods in the coastal and other low lying areas have displaced people and resulted climate refugees, fisher folks in coastal areas of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have so little to fish, all those stories we have been told and we have told time and again. We have been also told stories about who has contributed to climate change to happen and who can contribute for it to happen less.
And next month in Copenhangen we are close to a global deal that should set the global stage for sharing the burden of climate change fairly, and securing the future of our children.
In South Asia now the stories we would like to hear in and from Copenhagen are of a fair deal of correcting the course of history of our damaged mother earth. The story we would like to hear would have to be fair as because South Asia has poverty and prone to more poverty because of climate change. At the same time South Asia has possibilities for prosperity, with responsibilities to save the Himalayas and the low lying coastal lands, not only for our-selves but for the entire humanity.
We save South Asia we save the world!
Thankyou!
Welcoming and brimming Nilgiri range
Furba in Eklaybhatti
Solar cooker at Furba’s hotel’s backyard
Four wheeler descending from Muktinath to Jomsom
It’s a globalised mountain community
Solar powered Red House Lodge in Kagbeni
