Attributing the report to the findings from the most comprehensive assessment to date on climate change, snow and glacier melt in Asia´s Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region, in its own word, ICIMOD said the findings highlight the region´s extreme vulnerability to climate change threatening millions of mountain people and 1.3 billion people living downstream in Asia´s major river basins.[break]
The findings, published in three reports, were released Sunday marking the Mountain Day -- a convening of mountain experts, policy makers, and climate change negotiators on the sidelines of UN climate talks, according to an ICIMOD press statement.
“These reports provide a new baseline and location-specific information for understanding climate change in one of the most vulnerable ecosytems in the world,” the press release quoted Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Dr Rajendra Pachauri as saying. “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 minimize the risks from impacts locally.”
ICIMOD claimed the three reports 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 Status of Glaciers in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region, one of the reports, put the number of glaciers in the region at more than 54,000 and the area covered by them 60,000 square kilometers attributing the findings to remote sensing studies. “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 region,” the report claimed.
Snow-Cover Mapping and Monitoring in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas, another report, said there was an indication of an overall decrease in snow cover over the decade in the central HKH region.
Climate Change in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas: The State of Current Knowledge, the third report, however, pointed out that climate-related studies in the region suffer from a lack of repeat studies, field validation, and peer review, among others.
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