Confronting the Impacts of Climate Change on the World’s Glaciers: A Call for Collective Action - Masatsugu Asakawa
Opening remarks by Masatsugu Asakawa, President, Asian Development Bank, at the Bandung Spirit Water Summit, 10th World Water Forum, 21 May 2024, Bali, Indonesia
Introduction
Excellencies, dear friends:
It is an honor to join you today. We meet here in Bali, surrounded by the beauty of water. Water is a vital resource, and your work in this area is critical for people and economies across the world.
I am grateful for your participation at this summit. And I am pleased that your discussions will be guided by a shared commitment to cooperation. The Bandung Spirit embodies this well. I share the sentiment. I have said, time and again, that the challenges facing our world cannot be met by closing off societies and economies.
I would like to focus my remarks on how our cooperation is needed to understand and confront one such challenge. This is especially urgent because of our rapidly warming planet.
Let me take a few moments to show you what I mean.
Transcript
Stretching from Afghanistan to Myanmar, the Hindu Kush Himalayas contain the largest volume of ice outside the Arctic and Antarctica.
These mountains feed major rivers across Asia – from the Ganges to the Mekong – providing water for drinking, irrigation, and energy for about 2 billion people.
But this region, also known as Earth’s Third Pole, is warming three times faster than the global average.
These glaciers could lose up to 75 percent of their volume by the end of this century.
The consequences are dire.
First, there will be too much water.
A catastrophic debris-flood in Nepal three years ago offers a glimpse of what is to come.
A major piece of infrastructure built to divert water to the Kathmandu Valley was destroyed, disrupting regular water supply during monsoon season, and threatening much-needed water security in the valley.
Across the region, roads, bridges, and dams are being destroyed by erratic rainfall and monsoons supercharged by climate change.
Eventually, glacial retreat will mean too little water.
This means less water for irrigation in a region that produces about a third of the world’s rice and a quarter of its wheat, leading to more water stress and groundwater depletion.
Dwindling river flow will curtail water supply and sanitation systems in a part of the world where more than a billion people already lack access to basic sanitation.
And communities or even entire industries may need to migrate in search of freshwater and new livelihoods.
Melting glaciers will bring a future of water stress, frequent hazards, biodiversity loss, and food insecurity.
Without urgent action, this will hit the region’s poorest and most vulnerable groups the hardest.
I. Call to action on glacial melt
My friends, the roof of the world is melting. This is drastically altering landscapes, communities, and economies. Billions of people are threatened. The world needs to wake up to this alarming consequence of climate change.
Of course, many other aspects of climate change, pollution, and mismanagement contribute to water-related disasters, sanitation challenges, and food insecurity. ADB is committed to working with you on these. At the same time, the impacts of snow and glacial melt must be a priority concern when addressing water issues in Asia and across the globe.
I want to emphasize that this is a threat not just to the mountain nations that are home to glaciers. It is a grave concern for all the downstream regions fed by their waters. Countries and economies in every region will also face a future of instability from migration, trade disruption, price inflation, food insecurity, and other consequences. So, we all need to plan for a world with melting glaciers, and we need to work together.
Let me highlight how we can do this, in line with the Bandung Spirit.
II. Water-related priorities addressing glacial melt
First, we should strengthen our knowledge and governance through a deeper understanding of the multi-hazard risks from glacial melt.
We need to champion the cause of integrated river basin management. This will require enhanced data collection, open knowledge sharing, and strong coordination between upstream and downstream stakeholders.
We also need to understand the risks under various scenarios, including the potential impacts of glacial melt at 1.5, 1.8, 2, and 3 degrees warming. This will enable us to respond as the risks escalate, and also show us the dire consequences if we do not mitigate climate change to the greatest extent possible.
Second, we should invest in building resilience. We need to protect our ecosystems and incorporate nature-based solutions. The ecosystems of glacier regions are not just buffers against uncertainty. They are the very foundation for life-sustaining services.
Building climate-resilient infrastructure is also key to supporting communities that can withstand disasters. This infrastructure must provide access to safe drinking water and sanitation, sufficient water for food production and industries, and reliable power supply.
Third, we should work to provide the necessary financing. As you may know, development institutions like ADB have been called upon to evolve by scaling up financing, working together, and delivering faster. Key to this agenda is how we support global public goods.
I call upon the development community and our partners to support the glacial regions and their river basins as a global public good. The reason is clear. The river basins fed by glaciers are home to the world’s largest food bowls and industrial areas. Glacial melt, and chronic groundwater depletion, are endangering these areas, across many borders.
We need to support these regions because our collective future is tied to their continued survival. This will require investment from development banks and their clients, and policies addressing glacial melt. It will also require securing new sources of financing, such as eco-compensation mechanisms, environmental trading systems, carbon and capital markets, blended finance, and insurance.
Last, let me encourage you to tie these issues to our agendas on water cooperation and diplomacy, so that water serves as a force for peace rather than conflict.
Closing
Excellencies, dear friends, let me close by saying that the impacts from glacial melt cannot be ignored, and our response cannot be delayed. I ask that you keep this in mind at this summit and build strong momentum on these proposals as we approach 2025, the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation.
I am certain that our collective effort will yield results that cannot be achieved alone. Thank you for this commitment, as we secure a path to a more prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable future.
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