Global Protocol/ Research Project

I.                    Contributions to Climate Change

All countries located in the South Asian region are in the process of development. They are dubbed “non-annex” countries under United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) standards and thus do not have any guidelines to follow when developing. Without these guidelines and restrictions countries are practicing unsustainable forms of development. India is expected to be one of the highest contributors in 2031, where they are expected to double in their greenhouse gas contribution.  Though some countries have begun limiting their population, some countries do not have these limits and continue to increase in numbers.

II.      South Asia is facing record high temperatures and rapidly rising sea levels caused by the quickly changing climate. These effects of the climate change affect everyone living in the cities and along the coast because it changes the economy, the environment and it also has a negative impact on peoples health.  The record high temperatures have taken many residents of India by surprise because they are not accustomed to living with scorching weather that makes it difficult to work outside, and they aren’t familiar with the effects of heat stroke. The hot and dry weather also makes growing crops very difficult because most famers rely on the weather to bring the rain to nourish their crops, without rain there is no crops and no money.

            Since most of South Asia has a long low lying costal area the people along the coast are very concerned with the rising sea levels that could drown their villages and towns. The earths’ climate is slowly getting warmer and causing the ice all over the world to quickly melt and in return is raising the ocean levels. If the ocean submerges the coast then millions of dollars of economic revenue are lost and even more lives are lost. Losing hundreds and thousands of lives shouldn’t be the effect of climate change, but it is the reality that we are slowly seeing.

III.

Solutions to solving these problems are still being discussed. With exports being South Asia’s largest contributor to climate change, it would be simple to say they should cut back. This region is still in the process of developing and is contingent on their exports for survival. Currently the Kyoto Protocol has been working since 1987 to monitor country’s carbon exchange and help minimize their carbon footprint. Created by the UNFCCC, they are working to bring the Kyoto Protocol to under-developed countries like Nepal. Nepal and some other countries in the region are supposed to adopt this protocol sometime in 2012.