Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09KATHMANDU1104
2009-12-03 11:16:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Kathmandu
Cable title:  

NEPAL'S CABINET TO MEET ON EVEREST

Tags:  SENV EAID TBIO PGOV NP 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO6264
PP RUEHCI
DE RUEHKT #1104/01 3371116
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 031116Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1116
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 7222
RUEHCP/AMEMBASSY COPENHAGEN PRIORITY 0377
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA PRIORITY 2900
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 3363
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA PRIORITY 4861
RUEHC/DEPT OF INTERIOR WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI//J2X/J2C/J2D/J2I// PRIORITY
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 001104 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SENV EAID TBIO PGOV NP
SUBJECT: NEPAL'S CABINET TO MEET ON EVEREST

Summary
--------
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 001104

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SENV EAID TBIO PGOV NP
SUBJECT: NEPAL'S CABINET TO MEET ON EVEREST

Summary
--------------

1. (U) Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and 24 Cabinet
ministers are scheduled to meet at the foot of Mount Everest
on December 4 in an effort to draw the world's attention to
the adverse impact of global warming on the Himalayas. The
Government of Nepal (GON) is calling for urgent international
cooperation and assistance to address the affects of climate
change on the Himalayas, including the formation of glacial
lakes that are in danger of bursting. To further highlight
the plight of the Himalayas, the GON has invited all climbers
who have summited Mount Everest to a Summiteers' Summit that
will be held in conjunction with the upcoming United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in
Copenhagen.

Cabinet Meets at the Top of World
--------------

2. (U) Seeking to draw attention to the increasingly
adverse impact of climate change on the Himalayas, Prime
Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and 24 Cabinet ministers are
scheduled to meet at the foot of Mount Everest on December 4.
The Cabinet scheduled the unprecedented meeting after its
counterpart in the Maldives generated extensive worldwide
media coverage when it held an underwater meeting in October
to underscore the impact of global warming on the island
nation. The meeting will be held in an area known as
Kalapathar, elevation 17,220 feet, and is expected to last
just 20 minutes due to extreme conditions.


3. (U) The Prime Minister and his Cabinet will be
accompanied by five members of Cabinet Secretariat, including
the Chief Secretary, and more than 50 members of the national
and international media. Twenty-five Sherpa summiteers,
officials from the National Trust for Nature Conservation,
and members of the Himalayan Rescue Association are also
expected to be part of the entourage, which began arriving in
the region on Thursday to acclimate to the altitude. Only 40
people are expected to travel to the meeting site -- PM
Nepal, Cabinet ministers, members of the Secretariat and
select media representatives. A press conference is
scheduled to be held in nearby Syangboche following the
meeting, which is being held in advance of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in
Copenhagen, beginning December 7.



4. (U) The Cabinet is expected to address two issues during
the meeting: the message PM Nepal will deliver during the
three minutes he has been allotted to speak at the UNFCCC
conference and how to garner international support to
mitigate the affects of global warming on the Himalayas. The
GON also plans to announce the creation of the Gaurishanker
Conservation Area, a 2,000-square-kilometer preserve west of
Mount Everest. (Note. Nepal is a regional leader in
biodiversity conservation, with almost a fifth of its land
mass already part of a national park, nature reserve or some
other conservation system. End note)

Everest Summiters to March in Copenhagen
--------------

5. (U) The GON, under the leadership of Minister of Forest
and Soil Conservation Dipak Bohra, is organizing a
Summiteers' Summit during the UNFCCC conference to draw
further attention to the plight of the Himalayas. The event
will be held on December 11, International Mountain Day, and
all climbers who have summited Mount Everest have been
invited to attend. Apa Sherpa, who has summited Everest a
record 19 times, will lead a march in which renowned climbers
from the United States, Japan, France, Italy, and many others
countries are expected to join him. PM Nepal also plans to
host a dinner in honor of Everest summiteers.

Himalayas Already Hard Hit by Climate Change
--------------

6. (U) Climate change has already had a huge impact on the
Himalayas, where temperatures have risen at a rate of nearly
1 degree Celsius per decade since routine monitoring was
established about 30 years ago. Glaciers are melting at an
accelerated rate -- the UN's special International Panel of
Climate Change warns that they could disappear by 2035 --
resulting the formation of huge glacial lakes that are in
danger of bursting and causing massive destruction of life
and property downstream. Experts have identified 30 lakes on
the brink of creating glacial lake outburst floods, also
known as "mountain tsunamis."


KATHMANDU 00001104 002 OF 002



7. (U) Warmer temperatures have also been blamed for
decreased snowfall in the Himalayas, whose rivers are largely
fed by melting snow. As a result, there is a growing threat
to the more than 500 million people in South Asia who depend
on these rivers as a water source. Additionally, climate
change has had an adverse impact on the region's seasonal
monsoon, which, in recent years, has grown weaker and more
erratic. Agricultural production is largely dependent on the
monsoon. In Nepal, for example, more than 70 percent of
farmers depend on monsoon rains to irrigate their crops.

Comment
--------------

8. (U) The Cabinet meeting on Mount Everest is likely to
generate as much, if not more, global attention than the
Maldives' underwater meeting. What is uncertain is whether
Nepal will be able to sustain that attention and parlay it
into support in Copenhagen, where it will join other G-77
developing nations in pressing industrialized nations for
significant resources to adapt to climate change, including
the free transfer of technology needed to attain carbon
neutrality. With the other G-77 nations, Nepal will be
demanding that industrialized countries adhere to the strict
emission targets established by the Kyoto Protocol in 1997.
Nepali officials have privately said that rapidly developing
countries, such as India and China, should also agree to
strict targets, but it is unlikely they will express this
publicly in Copenhagen.
BERRY