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WEBINAR ON

HKH to Glasgow: Climate action in the Hindu Kush Himalaya

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Co-organized by:

International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), British Embassy Kathmandu, and Adaptation Without Borders

 

Climate action in the HKH

2020 is an important year for climate action. Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will communicate their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to limit warming to 1.5 to 2°C above pre-industrial levels; increase their ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change; and make finance flows consistent with climate-resilient and low-carbon development pathways.

The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region, which spreads across Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, China, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Bangladesh, is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. A 1.5°C increase in global temperature is likely to result in a 2.1°C increase in temperature by the end of the century in the HKH due to elevation-dependent warming. This will expose 240 million people who live in the mountains and hills and over 1.65 billion people downstream to climate-induced disasters, as well as large-scale environmental impacts on human health, food production systems, and biodiversity.

In a landmark event, the eight HKH countries signed the Ministerial Declaration and launched the HKH Call to Action during the HKH Ministerial Mountain Summit 2020 – signalling their commitment to sustain mountain environments and improve livelihoods in the HKH. This historic agreement highlights the need for regional collaboration and ambitious climate action to limit global temperature to 1.5°C and to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Objectives

The HKH to Glasgow webinar will provide a platform for stakeholders from the HKH to discuss how regional collaboration can deliver ambitious climate action in the region.

The dialogue will enable stakeholders to better understand transboundary climate risks – not only those that are shared across borders within the region, which have been long recognized (and where the HKH could offer best practice examples to the rest of the world), but also those that originate beyond the region and could nevertheless have critical implications for people’s livelihoods and well-being. Furthermore, the webinar will provide a platform to share progress made on climate actions; identify mountain-specific climate actions to limit warming to 1.5°C and for climate change adaptation; and discuss ways to make finance flows consistent with climate-resilient and low-carbon development pathways.

The dialogue will be one of the many technical and political dialogues planned in the run-up to COP26 in 2021.

 

Special guest

Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, UK

The Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, UK

Anne-Marie Trevelyan is the UK’s International Champion on Adaptation and Resilience for the COP26 Presidency. She leads discussions on adaptation and resilience between national governments, the international community, and businesses on behalf of the UK government and COP26. Prior to being appointed in her present role, Trevelyan was the UK’s Secretary of State for International Development. Her positions in the British government have included stints as the Minister of State for the Armed Forces and Minister for Defence Procurement.

 

Speakers

pema gyamtsho

Pema Gyamtsho

Pema Gyamtsho is Director General at ICIMOD. Gyamtsho, who is from the Hindu Kush Himalayan region himself, has been minister, opposition leader, and Member of Parliament of Bhutan. In these roles, he has played important roles in contributing to the nation’s ambitious climate goals. He developed Bhutan’s plan to become the world’s first fully organic nation as Minister of Agriculture and Forest in 2012. His experience spans public financing for environmental sustainability; enactment of legislation – focusing on environmental stewardship, conservation, and climate change mitigation; and strategic programmatic visioning, planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Nanki Kaur

Nanki Kaur

Nanki Kaur is a public policy expert specializing in climate-resilient development. She is the Programme Manager of ICIMOD’s Regional Programme on Adaptation and Resilience Building, to which she lends her expertise in climate finance, climate resilient social protection systems, and disruptive business models. She has over 17 years’ experience in policy analysis, strategic communication, business development, training and capacity building, and management of collaborative action research programmes. She has worked with the International Institute for Environment and Development, the Overseas Development Institute and The Energy and Resources Institute to deliver policy research programmes on climate change, natural resource governance, and pro-poor development in Asia and Africa.

Rebecca Nadin

Rebecca Nadin

Rebecca Nadin is Director of the Overseas Development Institute’s Global Risks and Resilience programme. She leads a multi-disciplinary team of analysts to pioneer policy-driven research on emerging risk vectors and resulting opportunities to reduce vulnerability, build resilience, and drive transformative and sustainable change. She has over 15 years’ government and consultancy experience in China and Asia, specializing in designing and managing multi-stakeholder initiatives in sustainable development and climate change; leading climate risk and vulnerability analysis and policy formulation at the national and sectoral levels; and analysis of China’s emerging geopolitical strategy and socioeconomic priorities. She is also one of the steering committee members of Adaptation Without Borders.

Pradyumna JB Rana

Pradyumna JB Rana

Pradyumna JB Rana is a climate change adaptation and governance analyst at ICIMOD. He specializes in policy and institutional analysis in relation to climate change adaptation and governance. He looks into how policies, regulations, and strategies are shaped and implemented, and provides recommendations as to their effective implementation for the management of public affairs. He is part of a team involved in trying to understand and address drivers of social inequality to improve livelihood security and well-being in the Hindu Kush Himalaya.

 

 

 

Nakul Chettri

Nakul Chettri

Nakul Chettri is Programme Manager of ICIMOD’s Regional Programme on Transboundary Landscapes. He leads a multidisciplinary team on climate change science, the economic valuation of ecosystem services, biodiversity informatics, and the scaling up and promotion of transboundary landscapes and trans-Himalayan transects. He specializes in stakeholder facilitation – to formulate strategic plans for conservation and landscape management, and promote regional cooperation in conservation. His focus areas include participatory conservation planning, policy analysis, and the development of policy frameworks at the landscape level. He has served as Fellow of the Eastern Himalayan Programme at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment.

Rigzin Lachic

Rigzin Lachic

Rigzin Lachic is co-founder of Hatti Ladakh and founder of Dolkhar – two Ladakh-based enterprises that promote local craftsmanship, architecture, and culture. She is also working on a digital aggregator for green enterprises supported by ICIMOD. Lachic is a proponent of sustainable tourism practices, and has been based in Ladakh since 2017, when she left behind the IT and business worlds she’d been a part of in Tokyo and New Delhi. Hatti provides a platform to Ladakhi artisans, helping them find value in their skills and, in turn, preserving them. Hatti has a network of about 50 artisans across seven villages. Similarity, Dolkhar – an upcoming vacation rental featuring traditional techniques and local materials in its design – aims to promote Ladakh’s history through art, architecture, and food.

Ahsan Javed

Ahsan Javed

Ahsan Javed is Research Fellow, Renewable Energy, at the SAARC Energy Centre in Pakistan. He conducts policy-based research studies and helps implement pilot projects in South Asia. A mechanical engineer by training, he specializes in renewable energy and has served as manager (engineering) at Pakistan’s Alternative Energy Development Board and technical coordinator at the Ministry of Climate Change, Pakistan. He has experience implementing off-grid solar photovoltaic and wind energy projects in rural areas of the country. He has also worked on the development of low emission development strategies, clean development mechanisms, and climate change mitigation measures. He played an integral role in the development of Pakistan’s Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions.

Manjeet Dhakal

Manjeet Dhakal

Manjeet Dhakal is Head of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Support Team at Climate Analytics, and serves as Advisor to the Chair of the LDC Group of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As an advisor to the UNFCCC, he has worked with representatives from Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, and Bhutan. He provides technical inputs and analysis to the LDC Chair and members of the LDC group, and was an integral part of the team behind the LDC efforts that led to the Paris Agreement in 2015. Dhakal has served in various honorary positions for the Government of Nepal, including as a member of the Expert Working Group for the ‘Sagarmatha Sambaad’. He was also recently involved in the formulation of Nepal’s updated Nationally Determined Contributions.

Prabhakar SVRK

Prabhakar SVRK

Prabhakar SVRK is Research Manager at the Institute for Global Environment Strategies (IGES). He specializes in mainstreaming climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction into development, adaptation metrics, adaptive policies, risk insurance, and regional adaptation planning to address the transboundary impacts of climate change. He has led several research and development projects on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in South and Southeast Asia. He has also been Coordinating Lead Author for the UNEP Geo-6 report, Lead Author for the ICIMOD Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment Report, and Contributing Author to the Fifth and Sixth Assessment Reports of the IPCC Working Group II. Prabhakar has over 15 years of experience working in participatory research and development with organizations including IGES, Kyoto University, UNDP, NIDM, CIMMYT-RWC, IARI, and ICRISAT.

 

 

Agenda

17 December 2020 | 15:00–17:00 Nepal Standard Time (UTC+05:45) | MS Teams

Time Programme
14:30–15:00 Check-in on MS Teams

Moderator: Nanki Kaur, Regional Programme Manager, Adaptation and Resilience Building, ICIMOD

Webinar production team: Udayan Mishra, Knowledge Management and Networking Officer, ICIMOD; Samita Sharma, Programme Associate, ICIMOD

15:00–15:10 Welcome and introduction – Nanki Kaur, ICIMOD
15:10–15:20 The HKH and the climate emergency – Pema Gyamtsho, Director General, ICIMOD
15:20–15:30 Transboundary climate risks in the HKH – Rebecca Nadin, Director of Global Risks and Resilience at Overseas Development Institute (ODI), and Steering committee member, Adaptation Without Borders
15:30–15:40 Climate action in the HKH – Pradyumna JB Rana, Climate Change Adaptation and Governance Analyst, ICIMOD
15:40–16:30 Panel session: Regional cooperation for ambitious climate action in the HKH

1. Nature-based solutions for ambitious climate action in the HKH

Nakul Chettri, Regional Programme Manager, Transboundary Landscapes, ICIMOD

2. Resilient mountain enterprises for ambitious climate action in the HKH

Rigzin W Lachic, Social entrepreneur, Co-Founder – Hatti Ladakh, and Founder – Dolkar

3. Resilient infrastructure and jobs for climate resilient and low carbon development in the HKH

Ashan Javed, Research fellow (renewable energy), SAARC Energy Centre, Pakistan

4. Climate responsive financial services for ambitious climate action in the HKH

Manjeet Dhakal, Head of LDC Support Team, Climate Analytics

5. Concrete actions and mechanisms for regional collaboration

Prabhakar SVRK, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES)

16:30–16:45 Q&A with audience
16:45–17:00 From HKH to Glasgow – The Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, UK International Champion on Adaptation and Resilience for the COP26 Presidency