In the latest episode of The Sustainable Finance Podcast, Paul Ellis interviews Tim Gocher, founder and CEO of Dolma Fund Management, the first international private equity firm to focus on empowering Nepal’s startups, to discuss the impact of climate change on the people of Himalayas. Watch here and read on to learn more from Gocher about how investments in renewable energy can help mitigate the production of black carbon. 

Climate change is ‘part and parcel’

To the people of Nepal, climate change is no longer a matter of debate, but part and parcel of living in the Himalayas. 

Two unusual climate disasters in August are examples of the consequences of the change. First, a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) triggered flooding in the Everest region in Nepal, destroying a village and displacing over a hundred people.

The Government of Nepal reported that two of the five small lakes above the village in the Namche region of Solukhumbu had been completely drained, and two others look potentially dangerous. 

The second flood hit in Mustang in western Nepal. The Kagbeni river, dammed upstream by a landslide, burst and washed away houses and bridges and displaced 150 people. The region is experiencing torrential rains and floods annually, unheard of prior to this decade. 

Black carbon wreaks havoc

Glaciers in the Himalayan region boast vast water storage capacity critical to the sustenance of a billion lives in Nepal, India, and Bangladesh. However, these glaciers are rapidly receding due to global warming. 

Studies have found that the Himalayas are heating faster than the global average. Carbon dioxide is the primary culprit in accelerating global warming. However, giving it a tough competition is not another greenhouse gas, but a particle: Black carbon. Unlike carbon dioxide, whose impacts are more global and gradual, the warming effect of black carbon is immediate and 1500 times stronger than CO2 in terms of its impact on climate. 

Black carbon is a small, dark particle of soot. It is formed when fossil fuels or biomass are incompletely burned. It’s the black smoke from a diesel truck exhaust or from coal-fired power stations. It absorbs sunlight, heats the atmosphere, darkens snow, and accelerates melting. Black carbon deposits have a direct impact on the volume and timing of seasonal melt, thereby affecting water flow in major river systems in the region. 

Furthermore, black carbon aerosols (tiny solid or liquid particles of black carbon suspended in the air) derived from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, or natural gas, or biomass like wood or plant material are accelerating glacial melting in the Himalayas, accounting for approximately 28% of total glacier melt. 

It also doesn’t help that Nepal lies between China and India, two countries that emit the most climate-warming black carbon aerosols. Nearly 5% of aerosol pollution from the Indo Gangetic Plain reaches glaciated regions of the central Himalaya in the months of April and May each year. 

The use of old diesel vehicles is further adding to the rise of black carbon. Not to mention, cooking using biomass fuel such as firewood, cow dung or crop residue. Continuous exposure to black carbon causes severe respiratory and cardiovascular diseases as well as pregnancy-related risks. These particles can easily latch on to human tissues, including lungs, kidneys, heart, spleen, blood, and placenta. 

Investments can mitigate black carbon

Increasing investments in renewable energy can help mitigate the production of black carbon. 

Nepal possesses a remarkable opportunity for renewable energy investments with over 80,000 megawatts of hydropower potential, and even more if solar energy is considered. If the energy potential of Nepal’s rivers and solar radiation can be harnessed, it can significantly increase the country’s renewable energy capacity. 

This would not only boost Nepal’s economy through increased productivity and energy exports but also have a profound impact on reducing regional greenhouse gas and black carbon emissions.

As an underserved frontier market, Nepal lacks access to international capital markets. This lack of access not only sets Nepal back from scaling up efforts that are critical for sustainable infrastructure, including renewable energy projects, but also negatively impacts the global fight against climate change. 

Access to such investments can help Nepal rapidly expand its renewable energy production and exports. 

Advocating for regional buy-in

To substantially curtail the black carbon production, global leaders and agents of change must encourage neighboring countries like India and Bangladesh to retire their thermal power plants. 

Since black carbon is quickly washed out and can be eliminated from the atmosphere if emissions stop, it can quickly reduce climate warming – not a fix to the problem, but a way to reduce rapid warming in the immediate future. 

Renewable energy projects, particularly in a complex geographical and environmental landscape like in Nepal, also require highly specialized skills. 

Neighboring markets and international investors can lend expertise in engineering and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards in such projects. Bringing in international expertise alongside investments builds capacity and ensures international standards are applied to local developments. 

Conclusion

Nepal stands as the fourth most vulnerable country to climate change, facing severe threats from melting Himalayan glaciers. Investing in renewable energy and related technical expertise not only provides clean energy to the people of Nepal and the region but also delivers tangible financial returns.

Climate change may seem too daunting a challenge to be addressed in the short term. But we now know for a fact that there are a few, often overlooked, low hanging fruits that may give us a boost in the fight against climate change.

Watch the full episode:

Watch more: How public and private capital join forces to scale clean energy solutions