"Even if global temperature change remains under 1.5°C to avert the worst impact of climate change, the Himalayan region would be two degrees hotter by 2100. With rising temperatures, about 36 percent of the glaciers in the region will be lost by the end of the century. This is according to a study conducted by Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). From shifting weather patterns that threaten food production to rising sea levels that increase the risk of catastrophic flooding, the impacts of climate change are global in scope and unprecedented in scale. Climate change and other environmental and socioeconomic drivers of change are testing the resilience of ecosystems and communities in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH), said Nand Kishor Agarwal, an official with ICIMOD. “And if further changes happen in the earth’s climate, the region will suffer the most.” Even a slight climatic change could affect more than a billion people downstream who depend on the Himalayan Mountains for freshwater, energy and other ecosystem services..."