BLACK carbon deposits originating from factories, households and vehicles are compounding the effects of climate change to speed up the melting of the Himalayan glaciers and therefore emissions need to be more aggressively curbed, according to a new World Bank report.

Current policies in place to reduce black carbon emissions – through enhancing fuel-efficiency standards, phasing out diesel vehicles and promoting electric cars – while laudable, will still reduce black carbon deposits by only 23 per cent, not enough to prevent an acceleration of water releases from glacier melt in the region, according to the report.

However, new economically and technically feasible policies are within reach to contain glacier melt at current levels, such as improving the efficiency of brick kilns, which account for roughly half of the emissions. Cleaner cookstoves and cleaner fuels are another key way to reduce black carbon emissions.

Incentivising households to switch from biomass or coal to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), and, in the long run, to solar energy could achieve this.

"Recent devastating flash floods attributed to a collapsing glacier in the Himalayas were a sobering reminder of the sometimes disastrous effects of climate change and the dangers we have to protect against," said Mr Hartwig Schafer, World Bank Vice President for South Asia.

"As glaciers shrink, the lives and livelihoods of many people downstream are affected by changes in the water supply. We can slow glacier melt by collectively acting to curb the black carbon deposits that are speeding the thinning of the ice. Regional cooperation to protect these resources will pay important dividends for the health and well-being of the people in the region."

The mountain ranges of the Himalayas, the Hindu Kush, and the Karakoram span 2,400 kilometers across six nations and contain 60,000 sq km of ice – storing more water than anywhere besides the Arctic and Antarctic. Melting glaciers and loss of seasonal snow pose significant risks not just to the people who live at their foot but to the stability of water resources in the South Asia region more broadly.

More than 750 million people depend on the glacier- and snow-fed Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra rivers for freshwater, and changes in the volume and timing of flows will have important economic and social implications. By 2050, from 1.5 billion to 1.7 billion people in South Asia are projected to be vulnerable to water scarcity.

Finally, countries in South Asia must work together to manage hydropower resources, an important source for the region’s clean energy needs and a generator of energy trade and security.

Unstable water flow from glacier melt and more variable precipitation underscore the need to stabilise availability over the longer term to make hydropower more viable.