Fighting climate change scourge high on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

WHEN Nyima Cering left for the Polish city of Katowice to attend the UN Climate Change Conference, he was well aware of the importance of protecting the ecology in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

It was the first time he attended such an important international meeting. He felt a sense of mission. Nyima Cering, an ethnic Tibetan and secretary of the CPC Committee of Chengduo County in west China’s Qinghai Province, was invited as a representative from a special ecological area with a unique culture during the pavilion events of the ongoing Katowice Climate Change Conference.

In China’s west, the QinghaiTibet Plateau covers about 2.6 million square kilometers — most of it more than 4,000 meters above sea level. The plateau covers the entire Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province, in addition to parts of Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, and Xinjiang.

Also hailed as the “roof of the world” and the “water tower of Asia,” the plateau contains the headwaters of three major rivers: the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang (Mekong). It is also a natural habitat for rare animals and a gene pool of plateau life.

Nyima Cering’s hometown sits at the headwaters region on the plateau.

“The ecosystem of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is highly vulnerable,” he said. “Rising temperatures and rainfall changes caused by global climate change can have impacts on grassland productivity and water conservation.

“Therefore, the local government and herdsmen work together to protect the grassland.”

According to a white paper issued by the Chinese government in July, the Plateau is still one of the cleanest regions on earth.

But Chinese experts believe that it is facing a series of ecological challenges, such as glacier retreat and permafrost degradation, due to human activity.

“The glaciers on the plateau have been melting because of greenhouse gas and black carbon emissions, which are also global issues and can transmit without boundaries,” said Kang Shichang, a researcher with Northwest Institute of EcoEnvironment and Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

To protect glaciers on the plateau, China has been reducing emissions and carrying out international cooperation, Kang added.

“Dealing with global climate change on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau will be a long-term task.

“The government should enhance top-level system designs and overall coordination, promote scientific, technological and institutional innovation in order to build a better ecological environment on the plateau,” said Shen Yongping, a researcher with CAS.