The opening of the new session of General Assembly marking the start of a landmark year for the UN had eerie echoes of the start of the global organisation 75 years ago when the world was also reeling from a crisis
South Asia’s Carbon Opportunity Is Bigger Than Credits
The larger economic choice for South Asia is therefore broader than whether to participate in carbon trading. The region can remain primarily a supplier of relatively inexpensive mitigation outcomes, or it can also develop the technology, professional capacity, financial products and verification systems that determine what those outcomes are worth.
Earth has Spoken! But are we Listening?
On top of that is our own unsustainable living that is creating large-scale havoc on the planet. They include construction of large dams, roads, and tunnels in the fragile Himalayan region. These activities together with the melting of glaciers due to global warming are bound to create worse natural disasters in the coming years.
South Asia’s Renewable Transition: Energy Security, Geopolitics and the BRICS Factor
The regional opportunity is particularly significant in electricity. Nepal and Bhutan can potentially export hydropower; India can provide the scale of demand and investment required to create a regional electricity market; Bangladesh can become an important electricity consumer; and Sri Lanka and Pakistan can expand solar and wind. Greater cross-border electricity trade could allow countries to exploit complementary renewable resources and reduce the need for expensive domestic backup capacity.
The Himalayas Need a Common Language of Warning: Emergency Cooperation Must be Institutionalised Into Durable Regional Architecture
A genuinely regional approach could eventually include - besides Nepal, China and India - Bhutan and, where relevant, downstream institutions in Bangladesh. Organisations with established Himalayan expertise, particularly the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Kathmandu, could offer scientific and institutional support.
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