New Delhi: The growing impact of climate change has accelerated the deterioration of the environment of the Tibetan plateau and this is a cause of global concern, a concept note unveiled at the recently-organised “Second Tibet Environment Conference” has stated.
The conference was organised on the subject of “Climate change on the third pole and its impacts” last week in New Delhi.
Speakers at the event included former foreign secretary Shyam Saran and Tenzin Lekshay, deputy director of the Tibet Policy Institute that is affiliated to the Central Tibetan Administration (popularly known as the Tibetan Government-in-exile) in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh.
Various speakers at the event called on China to utilise its extensive monetary resources to increase measures to protect the environment in the Tibetan plateau. The speakers said it would strengthen Chinese commitments made at the international Climate Change conference in Paris four years ago to combat climate change.
China has been carrying out massive creation of infrastructure in its Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) but its effects on climate change are being studied globally.
Interestingly, one of the speakers at the conference pointed out that the climate change in the Tibetan plateau has seen more food and other agricultural products being grown there which was not the case in the past.
It was also pointed out that the climate change (global warming) there has now resulted in “pleasant” (warmer) winters in parts of Tibet.
The Tibetan plateau is often referred to as the “Third Pole” due to the region being the source of some of the world’s major rivers.
“The Tibetan Plateau is an immense upland comprising an area of 2.5 million sqkm. At an average altitude of 4,000 metres above sea level, making it the largest and highest plateau on earth. The Tibetan plateau is one of the most ecologically diverse and vulnerable regions on Earth. It is one of the largest remaining terrestrial wilderness regions left in the world,” the concept note at the conference stated.
“This vast plateau is the source of Asia’s six largest and most important rive-rs. Yarlung Tsangpo or Br-ahmaputra, Senge Tsanpo or Indus, Dricu or Yangtze, Machu or Yellow (river), Zachu or Mekong, Gyalmo Nyulchu or Salween and other rivers providing fresh water and sustaining life for some of the world’s most populated nations,” the concept note stated.
