SDG Asia Workshop

That is really interesting to know about the climate policy. 

For your kind information, let us know about the forest management and its impact in climate change in context of Nepal.

Access and use rights, governance and benefit sharing mechanisms relating to forest management vary substantially across the community-based regimes. Specifically, community forests are granted full autonomy for management and use of the forests, and all income generated from the forests goes to Community Based Forest User Groups (CFUGs). Carbon rights and ownership are undefined within the legal framework or policies of Nepal, and are currently under revision by the Government and Constituent Assembly. 

For more information, you can see here 

https://theredddesk.org/countries/nepal

According to Schedule 1 of the National Foundation for Uplift of Indigenous Peoples (Aadibasi/Janjati) Act (2002), Nepal recognises 59 tribal and indigenous groups. The rights of such groups are advanced by various organizations, including the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) which is an umbrella organization covering 71 District Coordination Committees of NEFIN and more than 2,100 Village. At the international level, Nepal recognises the rights of indigenous peoples and marginalised groups through its ratification of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No 169 on Indigenous and Tribal People’s Rights and its adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), both in 2007.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305764062_Community_Forest_Management_A_Success_Story_of_Green_Economy_in_Nepal

Hi Johannes,

The Indian Business tycoon Anand Mahindra, M.D. Tech Mahindra Group talks about the business opportunity in renewable energy sector by totally committing to Paris agreement. He says Science based target initiative is a quantitative road map to meet the Paris goals. 

Please find the links below. 

http://sciencebasedtargets.org/

http://climateinitiativesplatform.org/index.php/Science_Based_Targets_initiative

Manju. 

Hi Johannes Vogel,

There is no country in the world that is not experiencing first-hand the drastic effects of climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, and are now more than 50 percent higher than their 1990 level. Further, global warming is causing long-lasting changes to our climate system, which threatens irreversible consequences if we do not take action now.

The annual average losses from earthquakes, tsunamis, tropical cyclones and flooding amount to hundreds of billions of dollars, requiring an investment of US$6 billion annually in disaster risk management alone. The goal aims to mobilize $100 billion annually by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries and help mitigate climate-related disasters.

Helping more vulnerable regions, such as land locked countries and island states, adapt to climate change must go hand in hand with efforts to integrate disaster risk measures into national strategies. It is still possible, with the political will and a wide array of technological measures, to limit the increase in global mean temperature to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This requires urgent collective action.

Climate change threatens our ability to ensure global food security, eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activity and livestock are a significant driver of climate change, trapping heat in the earth's atmosphere and triggering global warming.

Climate change has both direct and indirect effects on agricultural productivity including changing rainfall patterns, drought, flooding and the geographical redistribution of pests and diseases. The vast amounts of CO² absorbed by the oceans causes acidification, influencing the health of our oceans and those whose livelihoods and nutrition depend on them. FAO is supporting countries to both mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change through a wide range of research based and practical programmes and projects, as an integral part of the 2030 agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Strengthening the resilience and adaptive capacity of more vulnerable regions, such as land locked countries and island states, must go hand in hand with efforts to raise awareness and integrate measures into national policies and strategies. It is still possible, with the political will and a wide array of technological measures, to limit the increase in global mean temperature to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This requires urgent collective action.

UNDP Nepal's support is helping mitigate and reduce the impact of these threats and provide the rural poor with clean renewable energy and environment friendly livelihoods. A key part of UNDP's support across these areas is promoting pro-poor environmental management, risk reduction, and climate change adaptation at the national and local levels. 

Planetary warming continued in 2016, setting a new record of about 1.1 degrees Centigrade above the preindustrial period, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Statement on the State of the Global Climate in 2016. Drought conditions predominated across much of the globe, aggravated by the El Niño phenomenon In the Statement, WMO also noted that the extent of global sea ice fell to a minimum of 4.14 million km2 in 2016, the second lowest extent on record. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels also reached a record high of 400 parts per million that year. Mitigating climate change and its impacts will require building on the momentum achieved by the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which entered into force on 4 November 2016. Stronger efforts are needed to build resilience and limit climate-related hazards and natural disasters.

• Parties to the Paris Agreement are expected to prepare, communicate and maintain successive nationally determined contributions. The nationally determined contributions reflect official country responses to climate change and contributions to global climate action. As of 20 April 2017, 143 parties ratified the Paris Agreement, of which 137 parties (136 countries and the European Commission) communicated their first nationally determined contributions to the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
  
• As of 20 April 2017, seven developing countries successfully completed and submitted the first iteration of their national adaptation.plans, in response to climate change.
• Developed countries have committed to jointly mobilizing $100 billion per year by 2020 to address the climate-related needs of developing countries and to continue that level of support through 2025. Initial efforts to mobilize resources for the Green Climate Fund raised $10.3 billion and developed - country parties are strongly urged to scale up their financial support.
• The number of deaths attributed to natural disasters continues to rise, despite progress in implementing disaster risk reduction strategies. From 1990 to 2015, more than 1.6 million people died in internationally reported natural disasters.
• The number of deaths attributed to natural disasters continues to rise, despite progress in implementing disaster risk reduction strategies. From 1990 to 2015, more than 1.6 million people died in internationally reported natural disasters.
• Many countries have begun implementing national and local disaster risk reduction strategies. In 2014-2015, most reporting countries indicated that environmental impact assessments, legislation on protected areas, climate change adaptation projects and programmes, and integrated planning played a major role in reducing underlying risk factors.

Climate change policy of Nepal is also attached below, Please check it.

Sources: Report of the Secretary-General, "Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals", E/2017/66

Here is an interesting video!

For six million years, the Colorado River has carved some of the wildest geological wonders in North America. Today, its waters nourish over 36 million people. But a steady surge of settlers and drastic climate change are threatening the mighty river. In this short from filmmaker Pete McBride, the river becomes the narrator of a visual poem that tells the story of its history, significance, and potential future outcome.

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/short-film-showcase/the-mighty-river-that-dried-up-i-am-red

I think its worth watching.

Hi Johannes Vogel,

Thanks for sharing the interesting facts about regional cooperation in climate and resource policy.

Here, I want to share the scientific evidence on climate change.

Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale. This body of data, collected over many years, reveals the signals of a changing climate.

The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated in the mid-19th century.² Their ability to affect the transfer of infrared energy through the atmosphere is the scientific basis of many instruments flown by NASA. There is no question that increased levels of greenhouse gases must cause the Earth to warm in response.

Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show that the Earth’s climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. Ancient evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. This ancient, or paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly ten times faster than the average rate of ice-age-recovery warming.

The evidence for rapid climate change is compelling:

1. Global temperature rise 

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  The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 2.0 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere.⁵ Most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with 16 of the 17 warmest years on record occurring since 2001. Not only was 2016 the warmest year on record, but eight of the 12 months that make up the year — from January through September, with the exception of June — were the warmest on record for those respective months.

2. Warming oceans

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  The oceans have absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 700 meters (about 2,300 feet) of ocean showing warming of 0.302 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969.

3.Shrinking ice sheets.

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  The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometers (36 to 60 cubic miles) of ice per year between 2002 and 2006, while Antarctica lost about 152 cubic kilometers (36 cubic miles) of ice between 2002 and 2005.

  Image: Flowing meltwater from the Greenland ice sheet

4. Glacial retreat

Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world — including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa.⁹

Image: The disappearing snowcap of Mount Kilimanjaro, from space.

5. Decreased snow cover

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  Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades and that the snow is melting earlier.¹⁵

6.Sea level rise

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  Global sea level rose about 8 inches in the last century. The rate in the last two decades, however, is nearly double that of the last century.⁴

  Image: Republic of Maldives: Vulnerable to sea level rise.

7. Declining Arctic sea ice

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  Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly over the last several decades.⁸

  Image: Visualization of the 2012 Arctic sea ice minimum, the lowest on record.

8. Extreme events

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  The number of record high temperature events in the United States has been increasing, while the number of record low temperature events has been decreasing, since 1950. The U.S. has also witnessed increasing numbers of intense rainfall events.

9. Ocean acidification

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  Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30 percent.^11,12This increase is the result of humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into the oceans. The amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the upper layer of the oceans is increasing by about 2 billion tons per year.

Good morning Amit, Soniya and Manju,

Thank you for your very informative replies to my post. Indeed, there is plenty data available on impacts of climate change - but the concrete responses are alarmingly low. Combined NDCs are not sufficient to reach the 2 degrees goal and green house gas emissions are still rising in many countries.

Please follow this link to the KAS website where we have posted a comprehensive study about climate change and its impacts on energy, water, food and traditional security in South Asia. We have published case studies on Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Further studies on India and Bhutan will follow within this year. The reports highlight the immense challenges of tackling the various intertwined impacts of global warming.