SAPAN to COP26: Pay heed to climate challenges faced by South Asia

South Asia Peace Action Network (SAPAN) has called upon the world leaders at COP26 in Glasgow to pay heed heed to the challenges faced by South Asia, a region home to a quarter of humanity, saying that the countries that have been the biggest polluters must bear the onus on action regarding emissions reductions.

In a resolution passed by the participants of an online plenary session organized by SAPAN lamented that the governments of South Asia have not collaborated to present a united position at COP26 urging the governments to roll back reliance on fossil fuels as a contributor to growth and wealth generation. The resolution was read out by Disha Ravi, India and Durlabg Ashok, Pakistan.

It said the development trajectories of billions who seek to be lifted out of poverty and deprivation must not be in contradiction to their aspirations and stressed that the Global North must commit the finance and technology transfer promised to the nations of the Global South to enable unified action towards limiting the rise of global temperature below 1.5 degrees.

“We will continue urging our governments to keep channels of communication and cooperation open between the South Asian nations to seek solutions to challenges posed by climate change”, it emphasized. “We express our solidarity with the peoples of South Asia who are facing the climate crisis together. We await similar cooperative actions from the governments, shedding their divisive policies,” the resolution said. 

It was resolved that the South Asian nations must consider our fragile ecosystems and shrinking habitats a shared responsibility and preserve, promote and scale the indigenous knowledge of our communities that can provide crucial solutions in fighting the impacts of climate change. “We will continue to urge our governments to promote the exchange of knowledge and information about meteorological phenomena, and disaster risks,” it reassured. 

The resolution said, “We see key issues like glacial melt, sea level rise, rising heat vis-a-vis urban resilience, air quality and water resource management as regional issues. Urge our nations to view these issues as such and take a regional approach towards them.”

The participants believed that the cooperation on species’ protection, natural resource protection and climate justice for climate migrants,indigenous peoples communities, and other vulnerable groups must transcend boundaries and the SAPAN will continue to support and encourage advocacy and activism to engage with decision-makers to ensure that cooperative protocols that have been developed are not rolled back.”The human capital of the South Asian region has the potential to lead us towards climate sanity. We urge our governments to collaborate towards this. The world needs to provide the leverage,” the resolution concluded. 

The resolution was presented at Sapan event hosted by Khushi Kabir, plenary discussion with Vandana Shiva and others moderated by Afia Salam.