The impact of Global Warming in South Asia

“The mass of ice and snow in the Himalayas is the third largest in the world after the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets...Three of the major river systems of South Asia, namely the Indus, Ganges and the Brahmaputra originate from the Himalayas. 500 million people inhabiting the plains of North India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh depend directly from these waters that flow down from the mountains... The Asian Brown Haze (a smog cloud of particulate matter from coal fire and diesel engine emissions) is causing a regional heating effect that is accelerating the glacier melt in the Himalayas... Many of the Himalayan glaciers will disappear by 2035* and most of the snow fed Himalayan rivers including the Ganges will become seasonal rivers...Food productivity of the entire region would be severely affected due to the cycle of droughts and floods...” According to the report published by Asian Development Bank, decreased yields could threaten the food security of 1.6 billion people in South Asia. Hence the disappearing of snow and glaciers in the Hindu-Kush, will affect the Afghan population in the same way as in Pakistan India and Nepal and contribute to a further destabilisation of the country.

The South Asian Brick industry and the relevance of reducing its environment and climate affecting emissions in the subcontinent and particularly in Afghanistan

The South Asian brick sector is one the main reasons for the Asian Brown Haze, as ICCT reported in 2009: “Brick kilns are the most important industrial source of Black Carbon”** . “Black Carbon is an important component of the Haze and reduction in Black Carbon emissions should be given top priority. According to an IGSD/INECE report (9 June 2008), the impact of Black Carbon on melting snow-pack and glaciers in the Himalayas may be equal to that of CO2.” ***

Afghanistan is rated among the most vulnerable Asian countries to climate change impacts. Afghanistan is currently suffering from the most severe drought in living memory. The annual temperature has increased by 0.6 °C since 1960, at an average rate of around 0.13°C per decade. Moreover, the mean rainfall over Afghanistan has decreased slightly (at an average of 0.5mm per month) since 1960.

Today Kabul is ranked among the top ten cities with the world’s worst air, a recent study by 24/7 Wall St. reveals. An air quality survey for the Afghan government in 2009 concluded: "The worst enemy of Afghanistan is air pollution, not the Taliban”. Hence modernising the Afghan brick sector is of high relevance because brick kilns in Afghanistan are one of the major emitters of GHG, Black Carbon and other fine particulates and toxic gases. Around 670 brick kilns are in and around Kabul and they contribute 20% of total air pollution in the city, endangering the livelihoods of more than 5 million residents.

Afghan brick-makers use centuries old brick firing methods, which must be replaced by less polluting and more energy efficient techniques, if the melting of Hindu Kush snow and glaciers is to be prevented and if respiratory illness is to be reduced. In most South Asian countries, governmental, international and local organizations are promoting cleaner brick production, while in Afghanistan the introduction process of the energy efficient kiln-technology (VSBK) was left incomplete at the end of 2010 and could be continued with a new initiative.

* In January 2010, the IPCC issued a statement saying that while the conclusions on the magnitude of glacier loss are robust, their date of disappearance was poorly substantiated.

** “A Policy-Relevant Summary of Black Carbon Climate Science and Appropriate Emission Control Strategies”, International Council in Clean Transportation (ICCT), 2009

*** Extracts of a report “Stabilisation of Climate Change in the Himalayas” by C.P Muthanna from the Environment and Health Foundation [India].