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"Foreword" [2019] ELECD 1461; in Marsden, Simon (ed), "Protecting the Third Pole" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) vi

Book Title: Protecting the Third Pole

Editor(s): Marsden, Simon

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section Title: Foreword

Number of pages: 3

Extract:

Foreword
Given its location the `Third Pole' is significant for at least the lives of 20 per
cent of the world's population. Despite being close to the equator, its ranges,
which feature the highest altitudes in the world, are covered with a lot of snow
and glaciers and contain some of the largest ice fields in the world. Its reserves
of fresh water feed around ten river systems that connect across a range of
countries in and around the Hindu Kush Himalaya mountain ranges and also
the Tibetan Plateau. The water from melting ice provides for irrigation, energy
production, and drinking water for the vast communities that rely on them. The
Third Pole also contains vast and significant biodiversity and unique wildlife.
The grandeur of the Third Pole is often moderated by stories of flooding,
pollution, the environmental costs of energy production using dams and weirs,
political tensions amongst the communities of countries in the region, and
the impacts of climate change more generally. Given the population growth
in the region, energy use and production inevitably create challenges when
developments have to steer the sensitive and precious ecological character of
the Third Pole. The legal, political and institutional strategies for dealing with
the ecological, energy and resource challenges in the Third Pole are complex
given the dominance of India and China in that area. The overall environmen-
tal regulatory challenges for the region are exacerbated by the combination of
lacunae in terms of international and regional law relevant for ...