Himalayan states agree climate pact

Monday 21 November 2011

Four Himalayan states have agreed to collaborate on ways to combat climate change following a two-day summit in Bhutan.

India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan were part of the Climate Summit for a Living Himalayas held in Thimphu.

They agreed to work together to increase access to "affordable and reliable" clean energy resources and technology.

The deal also covers ways to adapt and improve food production and help vulnerable communities get better access to nutritious food.

The UN World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) warned today that heat-trapping carbon dioxide concentrations in the air have reached 389 parts per million - the highest concentration since the start of the industrial era in 1750.

Between 1990 and 2010, according to the report, there was a 29% increase in radiative forcing - the warming effect on our climate system - from greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide accounted for 80% of this increase.

“The atmospheric burden of greenhouse gases due to human activities has yet again reached record levels since pre-industrial time,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud. “Even if we managed to halt our greenhouse gas emissions today – and this is far from the case – they would continue to linger in the atmosphere for decades to come and so continue to affect the delicate balance of our living planet and our climate.”

“Now more than ever before, we need to understand the complex, and sometimes unexpected, interactions between greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, Earth’s biosphere and oceans. WMO will continue to collect data to further our scientific knowledge through its Global Atmosphere Watch network spanning more than 50 countries, including stations high in the Andes and Himalayas, in the remote expanses of Alaska and in the far South Pacific,” he said.

Greenhouse gases trap radiation within the Earth’s atmosphere causing it to warm. Human activities, such as fossil fuel burning and agriculture, are major emitters of greenhouse gases which are drivers of climate change. After water vapour, the three most prevalent long-lived greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

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