The 16th SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Summit, held in the 25th year of its inception, concluded with the “Thimphu statement on climate change”. Member countries recognize that the region is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
According to a World Bank report, a rise in sea-level will submerge a large part of Maldives and one-fifth of Bangladesh. Further, according to the report, glacial meltdowns in the Himalayas can lead to increased flooding and affect water resources in much of South Asia.
But the irony lies in the fact that though climate change issues have occupied an important position in most of the SAARC summits, there have not been any commensurate outcomes.
The “Thimphu statement” recommended commissioning various inter-governmental initiatives to address the challenges of climate change, such as an expert group on climate change. The need on the part of the eight-member countries in SAARC to exchange knowledge and transfer eco-friendly technology and undertake capacity building was also highlighted. What needs to be seen is whether these recommendations will be implemented on ground or continues to remain on paper like in the past?
No clear strategy
Given SAARC's failure to come up with a common agenda on climate change issues at the 15th Conference of Parties (COP) held in Copenhagen, this summit was an opportunity for the South Asian countries to come up with a common agenda to address the challenges regarding climate change as a regional group in Cancun, Mexico where the 16th session of the COP is scheduled to be held this December. However, no clear, concrete strategy has been defined, and the members merely re-stated the need to have a common stand.
Even at the regional level, despite constant emphasis on environmental and climate change issues, there is not much in terms of tangible outcomes. Projects have been identified under various technical committees and working groups, but implementation is slow.
The regional study on “Green house effect and its impact on the region” was completed in 1993. But the recommendations of the study are still not implemented. Also, visible outputs are yet to be seen from the Coastal Zone management Centre in Maldives (2005) and the Forestry centre in Bhutan (2008). Coupled with these, initiatives like the Dhaka Declaration and the SAARC Plan of Action on Climate change in 2008 also failed to portray SAARC as a single entity in the Copenhagen meet.
Broad-base initiatives
Nevertheless, one cannot say that there is total lack of action when it comes to environmental issues. Particularly the joint Programme conducted by India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan under SAARC STORM — a co coordinated field programme for Severe Thunderstorm Observations and Regional Modeling — has been a success.
As per the recommendations of the joint committee, the Indian government has decided to provide 50 automatic weather stations and thereby set up a network of weather stations across the region to monitor thunderstorms. Some of these reasonably successful initiatives have indeed given a boost to the efforts of SAARC as a regional group.
However, much needs to be done to mitigate the onslaught of climate change. A clear strategy highlighting the possible areas of co-operation among the SAARC countries is required. Also, measurable indicators to evaluate the goals should be initiated. The existing regional centers dealing with environmental issues should function more actively and ensure the completion of agreed initiatives.
Effective planning and implementation of environment protection systems need to be undertaken. Further, the SAARC climate change initiatives should be made broad-based by including professionals, the business community and the civil society.
