Glacial ties should not mean non-coop
ICIMOD) report, released earlier this year, warns that glaciers in Hindu Kush Himalayas are melting at unprecedented rates. They could lose up to 75% of their volume by the end of the century, leading to flooding and water shortages for the nearly 2 billion people who live downstream of the rivers. Such warnings mean that international monitoring of glaciers will be a crucial bulwark for safeguarding the region's future.
But, last week, GoI rejected a parliamentary panel's recommendation for a data-sharing agreement on Himalayan glaciers with countries of the region, including not-best-of-pals China.
This is a shortsighted step. One reason cited to reject the panel's report is national security. Any mechanism that would give Beijing informational access to the upper reaches of the Himalayas, a natural border, is a non-starter.
This is why a joint mechanism on glaciers proposed by the previous Indian government was also abandoned.
Yet, given the precarity of the climate challenge, GoI must find a solution that best balances national security and environmental-economic demands. India must step up its research on glaciers and augment its understanding of the issue. As major countries of the region, both India and China must engage in this.
New Delhi can take a leaf from Washington's book on balancing immediate and long-term security needs. Even though the security concerns are qualitatively different, India can relate to the difficulties of the US-China relationship. Washington and Beijing identify climate change as a sphere that requires both to work together.
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