DESCRIBING pollution as a “transboundary”issue,Indiahas urged nations, especially PakistanandBangladesh,totake proactive and collaborative measures to manage and mitigateairpollutionacrossborders. This appeal comes as northern India has been witnessing a riseinpollutionwithNewDelhi’s air quality hitting a ‘severe’ level for the first time this season, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) reaching 418, on Wednesday. Ministers and heads of delegationsfromsixoftheeightcountries that share theEarth’s tallest cryosphere zone met at a meeting hosted by Bhutan’s Prime MinisterTsheringTobgayonday two of the global climate conference COP29 in Azerbaijan on Tuesday,InternationalCentrefor Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said in a statement on Wednesday. ICIMOD is a regional intergovernmental learning and knowledge sharing centre.

 

In the meeting, India highlighted air pollution as a pressing and shared challenge within the Indo-Gangetic Airshed. “Most of our countries fall underthesameair-shed,i.e.,the Indo-Gangetic Airshed.This is a transboundary issue. All countries must work together to address air pollution,” said Naresh Pal Gangwar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forest and Climate Change. He urged nations, particularly Pakistan and Bangladesh, to take proactive, collaborative steps tomanageandmitigateair pollution across borders, the statement said. Earlier this month, Pakistan blamed winds from India for worsening air quality in Lahore and taking the smog to“dangerous levels”. Tuesday’s meeting took place as scientists issued fresh warnings about unprecedented economic and environmental losses from ice and snow melt, with2023 setting records for cryospheric degradation.

 

The Hindu Kush Himalaya(HKH) region, often referred toas Asia’s “water tower”, suppliesfresh water to nearly two billionpeople across Asia. Yet, climatechange-induced warming hasaccelerated glacial melt, threatening water, food, and energysecurityformillionsintheregion. Bhutanese Prime MinisterTobgayemphasisedtheurgency, saying,“TheHKHregionisabiodiversity hotspot and a repositoryofsomeoftheworld’slargestice reserves. With global temperatures rapidly nearing the1.5°Cthreshold,wemustactnow, collectively, to mitigateimpending disasters thatwill affect bothmountain populations and 1.6billion people living downstream.”