Kathmandu - Nepalese ministers are to meet at the base camp of Mount Everest to highlight the impact of climate change on the Himalayas, a minister said Monday. The entire cabinet is to travel to the camp, located at an altitude of 5,300 metres, this month for the meeting, said Deepak Bohara, minister for forest and soil conservation.
"We want to focus the world attention on the impact of global warming on the Himalayas before the Copenhagen meeting," Bohara said, referring to UN-sponsored talks in December aimed at negotiating a new global treaty to fight climate change. "The melting of glaciers in the Himalayas is a serious concern for us."
Bohara said the cabinet members would be flown to the base camp and the prime minister had approved the meeting.
The visit to the Everest base camp would be an opportunity for ministers to gain firsthand information on the impact of climate change, Bohara said.
"Climate change has led to the rapid increase in the size of the glacial lakes to erratic monsoon patterns and unprecedented forest fires," Bohara said.
International environmental agencies said glaciers in the Himalayans are melting at an alarming rate, creating lakes that have the potential of bursting and flooding villages below.
Experts also said climate changes in the Himalayas could have serious consequences for more than 1 billion people who depend on water that flows from the mountains to the rest of the Indian subcontinent and could impact rainfall.
