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“This is injustice at its best and I expect and hope for a better future and a better climate,” Timilsina added, who along with a group of students also met Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and read out their green concerns two days prior to the conference.
Earlier this week, Timilsina was asking her mother if she will die to flood and stay indoors more often because of the rising temperature outside.
Like in other parts of the world, questions that Timilsina raised have now entered the public discourse of the world’s youngest Republic. And just as fast as the glaciers are melting and the countdown to the Copenhagen Summit now in the depleting order, climate change discussions took centre stage as Nepali PM expressed concerns while addressing the regional conference that kicked off on Monday, “We in the Nepal recognize climate change has become possibly the greatest development challenge of our times.
And it is in the Himalaya that the impacts will be severely felt.”
The PM added that climate change could jeopardize much of the store of the ice in the Himalayas which are the sources of most rivers in the region and stressed the need for sustainable use of resources and management of the rivers to deal with climate change problems.
As the two day conference came to a close, it stressed on the need to translate the principles of common responsibilities and respective capabilities of the developed countries into operational practice. It also noted that the world had spent more on corporate/financial bailouts than on promoting sustainability and, least of all, on addressing climate change.
The Magic Bus Ajiktiv
“It’s nothing but noise,” says Sanjivani Yonzon commenting on the high-profile conference that concluded on Wednesday evening. “We have to bring change in the ground level and to achieve that, we need political will,” this 30 year old program manager at Wildlife Conservation Nepal (WCN) says rather skeptically.
Yonzon who is currently working on an environment manual intends to incorporate it into the national education curriculum by working closely with the Ministry of Education and other mutual organizations. “We need to move away from the world of jargons and breakdown the language of scientists and experts and step down from the conference level and spread the message from garden to garden and village to village,” she says, “It’s not awareness campaigns I am referring to here. We need to stir emotions and instill environment intelligence and this is only achievable if we catch the people young.”
And since June 4 this year, the manual has been put on test with WCN’s mobile nature school conducting trainings in environment issues in line with the existing curriculum, but using alternative teaching methods and offering hands on experience to students. “Till SLC, environment science is just a mark-scoring subject and the curriculum is more or less the same throughout one’s schooling. There are holes in the government textbooks. It doesn’t tell the students how they are part of it too.”
So how does this mobile nature school fill in the holes anyways?
A magic bus donated by DANIDA Denmark, Yonzon says is involved, which is currently testing the manual in and around the valley. Ten to sixteen teachers get inside a bus and travel to different parts of the suburban capital and meet students, teachers, organizations and locals in general. They then conduct workshops and disseminate information on the environment which especially poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged groups are so dependent on. “We are not working on a parallel curriculum but fulfilling the existing one and the workshops have sprung up ideas to further substantiate the manual’s objective – impart a quick and better understanding of natural resources mainly water, trees and plants,” says Yonzon.
Education works because it is not rocket science. “We’ve missed out the generation before us, our generation is not much in tune either and we cannot afford to ruin the coming generation. The manual is our hope,” says Yonzon who first felt the effects of climate change four years back as mangoes ripened in the backyard of her maternal home. And then she went all papayas as she acknowledged the silent arrival of climate change.
“Marigolds are blooming all over before their seasonal time, parrots were chirping and squawking, sparrows are rarely spotted…erratic rainfall, all these are indicating us to one thing – the climate is changing and we have to cope with it,” she adds, “And in no way, we can make money at the expense of environment.”
Cooking Without Gas
But energy demands of a developing nation like Nepal are high and for conservationists like Yonzon who have developed a policy framework with the aim to protect, maintain and conserve biodiversity, a big challenge is ahead. It will cost between $500 billion and $600 billion every year for the next 10 years to allow developing nations to grow using renewable energy resources, instead of relying on dirty fuels that worsen global warming, according to a United Nations (UN) report released Tuesday.
What does this astronomical estimate, higher than any previously suggested by the UN imply to the already volatile socio-political and economic conditions back home which continue to further worsen by food and water insecurities, tight trade policies and the financial outburst? Also, it is to be noted that the fund’s income is also taking a hit because of global recession.
On Tuesday, the United Nations children’s fund (UNICEF) head Ann Veneman said in an interview to Reuters that funds could lose up to 10 percent of its income over the next two years. Only this year, UNICEF needs $1 billion just for assistance in emergencies but eight months into the year, it has secured only 35 pct. Both the UN & UNICEF reports come at a time when developed and developing nations are still deeply divided over who bears the responsibility for shouldering the expense of sustainable cleaner energy resources.
But at the expense of climate change and carbon emissions cut, can the world ignore humanitarian assistance to the issue of who will foot the bills.
For conservationists, to know that the figure starting at $500 billion is just the cost of building the infrastructure needed in the developing world, including in giants like India and China, to meet their energy needs using renewable resources like wind and solar could be startling. Also a major hindrance to convince political leaders and their constituencies to go in that direction lies straight-ahead on the roadmap to reaching a global agreement on combating climate change by December in Copenhagen.
But there is a shimmer in the cloud of hope here in Nepal. Kriti Shrestha, who multi-tasks in Foundation for Sustainable Technologies (FoST) is just the person whom Yonzon and the climate gurus might be looking for to strengthen linkages amongst mutual agencies, and sensitize the people towards protection of natural heritage. “I don’t know much about the technicalities of climate change and what they discuss in various conferences,” says Shrestha, “I have a background in business studies but what I do know is that the climate is changing and carbon emissions are responsible for it but mitigation is possible to counter these trends by providing low-cost, low-tech, easily adaptable, locally-built sustainable technologies and education.”
For someone her age and the background, Shrestha is quite fascinated with the nature of her job that helps cut emissions and at the same time, empowers communities with income generating opportunities. “At one hand, there’s this issue about emissions but at the other hand, Nepal has scarcity of fuel,” she asks, “What else is then sustainable and profitable at the same time then the application of energy efficient technologies like briquette and free source of solar energy?” Cooking without gas, she says has changed the way she looks at the world today.
Briquette Briq
Collect any type of waste from you home or office including paper, cartoon boxes, saw dust, scrap wood, rice husk, fruit wastes, grass, leaves, kitchen wastes, agriculture and forest residues or industrial wastes. Shred ’em, cut ’em, soak ’em and hammer ’em and what you get is a pulp. A stinking good chunk of pulp. Now press the pulp, dry it for two to three days and what you have is your briquette, all ready to burn in a range of stoves ranging from mud stove with one burner to rocket stove and room chimneys. It is energy efficient, cost-effective, manages waste and moreover an inexpensive alternate source of energy that can fuel simple households to business houses.
“A kilo of briquettes costs Rs. 16 and a kg and half will take care of a day’s cooking for a family size of four,” Shrestha says, who just got back from training disadvantaged communities in Bajura, Humla & Jumla about this indigenous technology. “If we could take this technology to a larger scale, imagine what 600 tonnes of daily valley waste could be transformed into – 70 per cent of the waste could be utilized to make briquettes while the rest 30 could be used to manufacture compost,” she adds.
It’s a win-win situation for Shrestha as alternative resources get popular with the scarcity of fuel and electricity to meet the growing energy demands of the capital and besides the briquette success, the 30-year old briquette briq has also been advocating the parabolic solar cooker, heat retention box and solar water disinfector, all of which is slowly picking up practice in the upper hills and the mountains. However, this success story which has gained FoST international recognition has but one problem.
“We operate at a small scale and our clients are limited to private projects and a handful of organizations. The government should take this technology to the masses and the entire energy scene will just magnify in no time,” a firm Shrestha adds, “There should be more awareness than the usual boil your eggs, water and potatoes and home bred technologies like the briquettes should be recognized in-line with other businesses and the hydropower rhetoric as we have already witnessed that these technologies improve the quality of life and will strengthen Nepal’s goal of being a clean energy state.”
The demand is there. The production and the supply are in place. “We have a working module in a business setting. All we need is support from the government and the society to take these sustainable technologies to the masses,” a hopeful Shrestha says.
Sustainable Is The New Profitable
And sustainable technologies seem to be just the thing the new breeds of Nepali businessmen are betting their interests on. Speaking at a panel discussion in the climate change conference on Wednesday, Nirvana Chaudhary, executive director of the 500 million worth business conglomerate Chaudhary Group said, “Businesses have to now change the way they are and build a long-term sustainability strategy in line with the impacts of climate change.”
“Sustainability is not just being alive today,” this 26 year old said, “The key thing here which I keep pushing is also about being alive tomorrow.” In a column last week, Chaudhary wrote, “It can’t be business as usual in business.” And 25 year old Dawa Steven Sherpa couldn’t agree more. “It is the economy,” this two-time Everest climber and eco-tourism entrepreneur says, “Everywhere I see, I see possibilities. I see how things are and then I think how things could be.”
Working at a capacity of managing director at Asian Trekking, Nepal’s premier trekking house, Sherpa is currently following his father’s legacy in the business but his approaches are setting new standards. He has also established himself as a role model for eco-tourism after leading two successful Eco-Everest expeditions (2008 & 2009) to draw attention to the impact of climate change on the Himalaya and to field test eco-friendly approaches.
“I have tested the parabolic solar cooker at Camp II in Everest and it works,” says Sherpa who’s currently geared up to set up a wind powered turbine to generate electricity in his resort at Lakhure Bhanjyang. “There are these students from Kathmandu Engineering College who have designed a working module and at their college, this indigenous technology has been put into trial to generate a little amount of electricity,” Sherpa says, “I have invested Rs. 300,000 in them and they are currently working on setting the system up at my resort to generate 1500 watts of electricity.”
Business meets ideas. Sustainable is the new profitable. For Sherpa, had he invested in a generator, say 500 Watt to generate electricity, he would be investing somewhere about Rs. 800,000 and there would be additional expenses each month for fuel and with unpredictable supply and rising fuel prices, the investment would not quite live up to his expectations, not to mention carbon emissions. But Sherpa reached out to young ideas and the indigenous technology that could actually work and help sustain the environment and business at the same time.
“This is strictly business and not charity. It’s a deal,” he puts it straight, “The young engineers have an opportunity to create a working module in a business setting. I get the clean energy and the resort operates in a self sustainable manner. The young engineers then have the portfolio they need for a take off.” Sherpa, a risk taking business graduate from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland likes to add, “It saves money, not just the environment.” Sherpa recently finished training members of Aamaa Samuha (mother’s group) to make briquettes in coordination with FoST.
Cash for Trash
As unique are Sherpa’s business approaches, he’s also leading with examples. In early 2008 when Sherpa equipped his four establishments in Khumbu with parabolic solar cookers, locals were really skeptic about whether it would work. But they aren’t to blame as Sherpa explains, “A decade ago, a parabolic solar cooker was setup in Tengboche Monastery and despite hours in the sunlight, the apparatus posed a problem. It didn’t work.”
Sherpa later found out that the reflecting dish had been installed the other way round so there was no way, it would work and the locals just eschewed the idea away. “But now, all along the trail, parabolic solar cookers are showing up and this is a positive development as it saves a lot of firewood and money. This is evidence enough that these clean energy technologies work,” he questions, “If they can work in harsh conditions up there at Base Camp and even higher, there is no doubt that they will work here in the capital too.”
A parabolic solar cooker has the capacity to boil 10 liters of water in just 35 minutes. “I remember once in peak season, we boiled up to 90 liters of water in a day, says Sherpa who is changing the way kitchens function in the Himalaya. Besides the parabolic solar cooker, heat retention box and briquettes are soon replacing the traditional firewood stoves in Sherpa’s Base Camp Bakery, the apple pie of which is known worldwide among trekkers and mountaineers. “It’s the economy,” he reasserts, “The alternatives that we are talking about to mitigate emissions should be cheaper. That’s the bottom line.”
Everything has to make financial sense at the end of the day and Sherpa believes that indigenous clean energy technology is our way out. “The conference is just a protocol to make noise,” says Sherpa who is soon working with ITN, a UK based television channel that will broadcast live from the Himalaya from November 1st to the 20th. The documentary team is doing a climate change series. He adds, “The momentum post conference is what’s important. The conference is just a means to the end and policies must come into place to take these working modules in a business setting. ”
A vocal campaigner, Sherpa also started Cash for Trash, an initiative through which people get Rs. 100 for each kg of garbage they bring back from the mountain. “Last year, we collected six tones of garbage, the bio-degradable of which we sent to the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee for disposal while the non-degradable waste was utilized by Fine Arts students of Kathmandu University.”
The Third Pole
Learning from sound bites and things and events we see happening around us in daily basis, the threat of climate change is inevitable and in South Asia, more than any other region in the world, the urgent need for action is clear. The subcontinent is already facing the impacts of higher temperatures, particularly at higher altitudes where the retreating glaciers present one of the most difficult challenges for the entire region. And it’s the worst vulnerable who will suffer from the impacts of climate change in this part of the region where most people living below poverty line.
The Himalayas are the water tower of South Asia and even the slightest changes can result in dire impacts in the eco-system which will directly affect more than a billion people who are dependent on nature for their existence. But for now, sustained efforts in this field are a wait and watch situation and burrowing from what Sherpa had to say earlier, “Everywhere I see, I see possibilities. I see how things are and then I think how things could be.” The way forward for Nepal, it seems is quite clear – action. This week, we saw the start of that action with government taking initiative for a regional voice and donors joining hands together to pledge for the support of any such action in near future.
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