Glaciers in Asia’s Hindu Kush Himalaya could lose up to 75% of their volume by century’s end due to global warming, causing both dangerous flooding and water shortages for the 240 million people who live in the mountainous region, according to this report by the ICIMOD.

This book presents 10 efficient, cost-effective and custom-made solutions that have been tested in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region and are suitable for up-scaling and out-scaling to other regions.

Majority of Himalayan glaciers analysed are melting or retreating at varying rates in different regions, the government has said. It has noted that melting glaciers due to any impact of climate change will not only severely affect the flow in Himalayan river system but will also give rise to natural disasters.

The fragility of the Himalayan ecosystem was recently highlighted by incidents of land sinking in Joshimath, a small hill town in India’s Uttarakhand.

This paper presents targets pertaining to renewable energy as put forward by the HKH countries, and the potential of the HKH region to contribute to the national climate targets related to renewable energy.

South Asia and the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) are among the regions that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Its adverse impacts are worsening and becoming more evident here. The impacts of climate change are leading to severe consequences such as increased food insecurity, poverty, and social and gender inequalities.

The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (2011–2020), formally adopted by COP in 2010 in Aichi, Japan provided an overarching global framework on biodiversity whose vision is to value, restore, and conserve biodiversity for the benefit of all people by 2050.

The communities inhabiting the mountainous areas of the Hind Kush Himalaya (HKH) region, which rely mainly on agriculture and farming for their food security and livelihoods, face increasingly severe impacts from climate change.