For the second year, the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) hosted a session at Stockholm World Water Week titled \u201cWater for Climate Action.\u201d The event brought together dignitaries, UN officials, Indigenous representatives, policy practitioners, and nonprofits for discussion, information sharing, and to emphasize that water security and climate can no longer be separated. Both issues are intertwined and therefore require coordinated policy responses and solutions at the highest levels of government, multilateral agencies, scientific institutions, and civil society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tibet is a prime case study of the urgent need for a multi-stakeholder response which includes the input and involvement of affected communities. Asia\u2019s major rivers, which originate in Tibet, sustain the livelihoods of 1.8 billion people downstream and are essential to climate stability, ecological integrity, and the fate of 7 million Tibetans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moderated by ICT\u2019s Government Affairs Director Franz Matzner, the session brought together ICT\u2019s Senior Researcher Palmo Tenzin, Stockholm Environment Institute\u2019s Senior Scientist Charlotte Wagner, and University of Potsdam\u2019s Dr. Wolfgang Schwanghart. The three participants explored the risks of China\u2019s hydropower dams in Tibet, water quality and scarcity in the broader region, climate change, and alternative development models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAny conversation around Asia\u2019s major rivers tends to primarily exclude Tibet,\u201d stated ICT\u2019s Palmo Tenzin. \u201cIt\u2019s never seen because it is a taboo topic for the Chinese\u2026This is an occupied region and a territorial conflict. Without acknowledging that political dynamic and confronting it there will never be a sustainable solution for the way the rivers are managed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n