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Source: BBC News website
Amidst growing criticism from industrialised countries for not committing to greenhouse gas reduction targets, India has indicated it would initiate regional efforts to deal with climate change.
Some experts believe the regional approach could be aimed at resisting pressure from major western economies, while others say the South Asian country has no other way to face the global challenge.
In its recently launched climate change national action plan, for example, India has stressed working with other nations in South Asia.
"We will need to exchange information with the South Asian countries and countries sharing the Himalayan ecology," the plan reads.
"Co-operation with neighbouring countries will be sought to make a comprehensive network for observation and monitoring of the Himalayan environment, to assess fresh water resources and the health of the ecosystem."
Climate change binds the region together because it is the victim and not the culprit
Sunita Narain, CSE
Sustaining the Himalayan ecosystem that India shares with most other South Asian countries is one of eight national missions in the action plan.
Another mission, for national water, also talks about "customising climate change models for regional water basins".
The Ganges, Meghna, Brahmaputra and Indus rivers forming the regional water basins are lifelines to hundreds of millions of people, nearly half of them poor.
Experts have warned that the people hardest hit by climate change will be the poor.
They have also said that most of the river basins in South Asia will see less and less water as Himalayan glaciers that feed them recede due to rising temperatures.
Current troubles
But even before it all becomes that bad, India is already water-troubled.
"Many parts of the country are water stressed today," the climate change action plan says.
"India is likely to be water scarce by 2050, and the problem is likely to worsen due to climate change impacts."
Environmentalists say it is the threats of such impacts that could bring the region together.
"Unless we understand the climate change problem and work on it together as a region, we will never be able to deal with it," says Sunita Narain, director of the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
Inflatable boat carries people displaced by flooding
Major rivers such as the Brahmaputra already flood regularly
"In the action plan, we have seen for the first time that India has recognised that South Asian region must work together as a voice."
A recent meeting of environment ministers from the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) also stressed the importance of having one voice for the region.
Participants said there has been a seven-point agreement to work towards that end.
Atiq Rahman, one of the delegates to that meeting and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said it was the commonality of the problem that led to the agreement.
"While countries like Bangladesh and Maldives in the region are threatened by rising sea levels, others including Bhutan, Nepal, India and Pakistan face increasing risks from glacial lake outburst flood and extreme weather.
Read full article on the BBC News website
