Archived press release

Anger as World Heritage Committee fails to protect Everest and other sites from climate change

10 July 2006

Friends of the Earth International, the Climate Justice Programme and Greenpeace have reacted angrily today after the World Heritage Committee refused to take urgent action to protect some of the world's finest sites from climate change [1]. The failure is all the more remarkable as the World Heritage Centre has also published a survey showing the enormous threat that climate change poses to World Heritage Sites across the World [2], including four sites in London [3].

The Committee, which is holding its annual meeting in Lithuania [4],

• rejected calls to try and prevent widely-acknowledged risks from climate change to five World Heritage sites, including Everest;

• ignored the importance of countries significantly reducing their greenhouse gas emissions;

• agreed with US demands to delete reference to the Kyoto Protocol, IPCC science and a Peruvian proposal regarding emergency measures; and

• endorsed a weak `world heritage and climate change strategy' which focuses on the impacts but not the causes of the problem. The issue will be debated at the 2007 UNESCO General Assembly

The failure comes despite increasing evidence of the major threat that global warming poses to World Heritage Sites. A survey of 83 countries by the World Heritage Centre, just published, reveals that "125 World Heritage Sites were... threatened… by Climate Change", including 19 glacier sites and 7 coral reefs worldwide.

The World Heritage Convention legally requires all countries to pass sites listed under the Convention intact to future generations. But campaigners argue that unless urgent action is taken on climate change, this will not happen. They called on the committee to:

• send a mission of qualified observers to visit five World Heritage sites to evaluate the nature and extent of the threat and to propose measures that could be taken to mitigate the threat;
• recognize that countries that have signed up to the World Heritage Convention must significantly cut their greenhouse gas emissions as part of their duty to protect and transmit World Heritage Sites to futuregenerations;

The petition to have Everest put on the In Danger list was also backed by Sir Edmund Hillary [6].

Notes

1. see attached decision

2. see attached

3. According to the United Kingdom Climate Impacts Programme sea level will rise in the Thames estuary by up to 0.86 metres by the 2080s. If the Thames Barrier is breached it is predicted that (as well as the potentially huge human and financial costs) this will affect two world Heritage Sites, namely the Palace of Westminster and the Tower of London. Other sites under threat include: Maritime Greenwich and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

4. http://whc.unesco.org/en/185/ The 21 members of the World Heritage Committee are: Benin, Canada, Chile, Cuba, India, = Israel, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lithuania (Chair), Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Spain, Republic of Korea, Tunisia and the United States of America (http://whc.unesco.org/en/committeemembers/).

5. The dangers facing the five petition sites are summarized below, with links to the petitions, and contacts:

SAGARMATHA (EVEREST) NATIONAL PARK, NEPAL (SNP):
The Himalayas have warmed about 1C since the 1970s, almost twice the global average, affecting the SNP's peaks, dominated by Sagarmatha/Mount Everest, and its hundreds of glaciers and glacial lakes. This warming has led to the retreat of 67% of Himalayan glaciers, and an official study has identified several lakes in the SNP as potentially at risk of outburst flood. Continued melt will increase summer river flows for a few decades, with expected increased frequency of floods, followed by a severe reduction in flow to major rivers such as the Ganges and Indus as the glaciers disappear. It also poses an economic threat for Nepal, where the glacial melt is critical for the agricultural industry that 80% of the population relies on.

Petition link: www.climatelaw.org/media/UNESCO.petitions.release.

HUASCARAN NATIONAL PARK, PERU (HNP):
Since 1967, scientists estimate that more than 22% of the mass volume of glaciers in Cordillera Blanca, which the HNP covers, has been lost, most during the past five years. This has been accompanied by a warming tendency of 0.252C per decade (1965-1994). The combination of high local seismic activity, climate change, increased glacier and hill-slope instability, and rapid increase in the development of high-altitude glacial lakes has created an extremely dangerous scenario for the two million people living within the immediate vicinity. In under 50 years, there could be no glaciers in the HNP and water will be scarce.

Petition link: www.climatelaw.org/media/UNESCO.petitions.release.

WATERTON-GLACIER INTERNATIONAL PEACE PARK, CANADA-USA (WATERTON):
Recent warming temperature (almost 2C between 1910 and 1980) are causing most of this region's glaciers to retreat at an accelerating pace. Waterton is now at risk of losing its glaciers - the iconic symbol of the park. The US part of Waterton, Glacier National Park, once had over 150 glaciers, but only 27 remain. At the current rate of global warming, these glaciers are expected to all vanish by 2030. This will significantly change the aesthetics of the park and cause substantial changes in its ecosystem.

Petition link: www.climatelaw.org/media/UNESCO%20-%20 ¬
Waterton-Glacier%20International%20Peace%20Park%20petition.

GREAT BARRIER REEF, AUSTRALIA (GBR):
Coral bleaching of the world's longest barrier reef has increased significantly as human-induced, sea surface temperatures have risen over the last two decades, especially in 1998 and 2002. Thermal stress is projected to be 3-6 times higher in 2050 than even the worst recent period of thermal stress seen on coral reefs so far. Being perhaps the best managed marine park in the world will not make the GBR immune from the impacts of climate change.

Petition link: www.climatelaw.org/media/Australia.scigl.report.

BELIZE BARRIER REEF RESERVE SYSTEM, BELIZE (BBR):
The BBR includes seven marine protected areas that protect vital coastal ecosystems and communities and provides food and livelihoods for its inhabitants. It has bleached substantially over the last decade, especially in 1995, 1998 and 2005. Between 1997 and 1999 about half the live coral in Belize was lost due to the combination of bleaching and Hurricane Mitch, with at least one reef inside WHS's losing over 90% of their corals. There has been little recovery in the last eight years, possibly due to continued stress from warmer waters, hurricanes and growing localized impacts from the expanding tourism industry.

Petition link: www.climatelaw.org/media/UNESCO.petitions.release.

[6] Sir Edmund Hillary, who was the first man to summit Everest, with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, is also backing the campaign to protect Everest (Sagarmatha National Park). In a statement last year he said:

"The warming of the environment of the Himalayas has increased noticeably over the last 50 years. This has caused several and severe floods from glacial lakes and much disruption to the environment and local people.

"I agree the practical idea of remedial action of draining the lakes before they get to a dangerous condition is the only way to stop disasters. Therefore I support the petition to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee lodged by Pro Public and others, requesting the inclusion of Sagarmatha National Park in the list of World Heritage in Danger as a result of climate change and for protective measures and action".

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust