Read the Open Letter to the UN Climate Change Conference
Dharamsala, December 14: Thirty-five Parliamentarians from 16 different
countries have sent an open letter to the head of the UN Climate Change
Conference in Copenhagen urging negotiators to take into account the
global implications of climate change in Tibet.
The
Chinese government has been implementing policies of settling Tibetan
nomads, confiscating their land, and fencing pastoral areas.
Environmental activist groups say the involvement of Tibetan nomads is
essential to sustaining the long-term health of the ecosystems and
water resources that China depends upon. (Photo: ICT)
The
Copenhagen Climate Change conference has been billed by organisers as
the “last best chance” to save the planet earth, and the Tibetan
plateau, also known as the 'Third Pole', is bearing the brunt of
climate change.
In the Open Letter
to UN Climate Change Conference, the International Parliamentary
Network on Tibet has recommended "Tibet's role in climate change
solutions."
The joint action is part of the Rome Declaration on Tibet
adopted in the 5th World Parliamentarians' conference held in Rome last
month. On November 18-19, parliamentarians from 30 countries met in
Rome for the Parliamentary Convention on Tibet and drafted a
declaration to raise awareness on this critical issue.
The
letter calls on the governments to explore multinational mechanisms to
work collaboratively on the challenges of climate change in Tibet,
including with the direct participation of Tibetan stakeholders.
“We
write to urge that the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen
give serious attention to the ‘Third Pole’, as Tibet is known for being
the largest repository of glacially stored water outside of the Arctic
and Antarctic,” the parliamentarians for Tibet wrote in the letter.
Chinese
meteorologists have said temperatures on the Tibetan plateau are rising
twice as fast as the rest of the earth, and that Tibet is becoming an
increasingly important barometer of global climate change.
“Glaciers
are melting, exposing dark rock and soil, and increasing the absorption
of solar radiation. Due to resultant variations in the monsoon cycle,
many areas on the Tibetan plateau are drying out and desertifying,” the
letter says.
The letter says the Chinese government’s land-use
policies are contributing to the acceleration of global warming and
environmental destruction, including degradation of the grasslands, on
the fragile high-altitude Tibetan plateau, and calls for independent,
international scientific assessments of the changes in the Tibetan
plateau's ecosystems, water resources and China’s land use policies.
“These
land-use policies include the construction of infrastructure, an
emphasis on urbanization despite a predominantly rural population, and
the settlement of nomads, which is threatening one of the last examples
of sustainable pastoralism on earth. Tibetans are being deprived of the
stewardship of their land at a time of environmental crisis,” the
letter said.
The letter insists that the participation of
scientists and relevant stakeholders from Tibet and from those nations
that depend on Tibet’s water is necessary for rigorous examination,
analysis and interpretation of conditions on the plateau. It argues
that such an initiative will “facilitate an equitable and durable”
approach in adapting to and mitigating the affects of climate change in
the region.
“Tibet is central to a global climate change
solution, and the Tibetan people must play a critical role in the
implementation of solutions,” the letter said.
The signatories
of the letter members of Parliament representing their Parliamentary
Intergroups in Italy, Canada, Iceland, Australia, India, European
Parliament, France, the UK, Sweden, Belgium, Lithuania, the
Netherlands, Denmark, Estonia, Poland, Scotland and the Tibetan
Parliament in exile.
“The issue of the environmental degradation
of the Tibetan plateau and the impact of climate change there should be
addressed specifically by the Copenhagen summit,” Matteo Mecacci,
President of the Tibet Intergroup of the Italian Parliament, said in a
press statement issued yesterday.
“The policies of China toward
Tibet are undermining not only the livelihood of Tibetan nomads and
stakeholders, but also the preservation of natural resources that
matter not only for Tibetans, but for hundreds of million of people in
Asia and beyond”
“Therefore, we urge the negotiators in Copenhagen to address the issue of climate change in Tibet,” Mecacci said. |
