Ahead of the critical Copenhagen Summit next month to figure out how the world can stop climate change – which some analysts said has failed before it has begun, and for which the European Union couldn’t agree on a common stance  - an Indian discussion paper says there is no conclusive evidence to prove that the Himalayan glaciers are melting due to climate change, a view sure to stir things up and set off even fiercer debate over the causes of global warming. A meeting of the G20 in Scotland failed to draw up a list of concrete options for helping to finance emerging economies tackle global warming. Instead, the finance ministers said they would “work toward an ambitious outcome in Copenhagen,” but didn’t say what it was. “We have not reached a common solution,” said German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who added the Copenhagen summit cannot fail, although the United Nation’s environment chief said it will. That’s why the Indian paper has the potential to cause a ruckus and create more division.
The paper, released by the federal Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, challenges the globally accepted view that the Himalayan glaciers are rapidly shrinking due to global warming, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported. “The Himalayan glaciers, although shrinking in volume and constantly showing a retreating front, have not in any way exhibited, especially in recent years, an abnormal annual retreat, of the order that some glaciers in Alaska and Greenland have reported,” the paper authored by VK Raina, a retired official of the Geological Survey of India, says. Raina said a glacier was affected by a range of physical features and complex interplay of climatic factors and it would be premature to state they were retreating as a result of periodic climate variation until many centuries of observation were available. He added the views expressed in the discussion paper were not those of the government, but its publication was intended to stimulate discussion. Ramesh said that while most Himalayan glaciers were retreating, some like the Siachen glacier were actually advancing and others like the Gangotri glacier were retreating at a rate lower than before. The Himalayan glaciers feed major rivers flowing through India, Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar. “The overall health of Himalayan glaciers was poor as the debris cover had reached alarming proportions,” Ramesh said citing the discussion paper, but added that there was no conclusive scientific evidence to link this to climate change.