Kathmandu: Stakeholders have expressed worry over climate change posing severe threats to mountain region. In a session on ‘Risk and Assessment of Mountain Region’ organized as part of Sagarmatha Sambaad today, they warned the people living in mountain regions would be pushed to further vulnerability once measures to lessen climate change impacts were not taken on time.
According to National News Agency Nepal, Director of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, Dr. Tao Wang, opined that mountain regions have been affected most due to temperature rising globally. Academic Associate at University of Zurich, Switzerland, Dr. Simon Allen, emphasized the need to develop local capacity to face climate change impacts effectively.
Likewise, Senior Geological Engineer at BGC Engineering Inc, Canada, Emily Mark, shared that the impacts of climate change would affect environmental systems and development, while Professor at Keio University, Japan, Rajib Shaw, pointed out the need for collaboration and diversity from local to global levels to address these global challenges.
Similarly, Head of the German Research Centre for Geosciences, Dr. Niels Hovius, stressed the importance of developing natural disaster early warning systems for climate adaptation, monitoring the impacts of climate change, and adopting measures of environmental sustainability. The stakeholders noted that mountains are among the most dynamic and fragile systems on the planet, increasingly vulnerable to threats of landslides, floods, glacial lake outburst floods, and avalanches.
The scientists expressed concern that climate change could exacerbate such risks, threatening the lives and livelihoods of mountain communities and billions of people living in low-lying areas.