cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/45245084
China has transformed the Tibetan Plateau, one of the world’s most fragile environments, into a zone of extreme ecological stress under its state‑centric model of infrastructure expansion, militarisation, and resource extraction, reported the IANS new service Oct 6, citing Stockholm Centre for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs at the Institute for Security and Development Policy. The centre has accused China of engaging in ‘extractive colonialism’ in Tibet, with forced relocation of close to one million Tibetans.
The group’s report, published ahead of the UN’s climate change conference COP30 in November in Brazil, has said Tibet must no longer remain the blind spot of global environmental governance as the crisis unfolding on the ‘Roof of the World’ is already shaping the future of water, food, and energy security across the Indo‑Pacific and beyond.
The centre’s new Stockholm Paper, titled as ‘Wither Tibet in the Climate Crisis Agenda?’ has brought together more than 20 international experts to examine the Tibetan Plateau’s accelerating ecological breakdown and its far‑reaching implications for Asia’s water security, regional stability, and global climate governance.
Noting that the Tibetan Plateau, often referred to as the ‘Third Pole’, is warming at more than twice the global average, the report has warned that its glaciers are retreating, permafrost is thawing, and grasslands are degrading, threatening the delicate water systems that sustain nearly two billion people across South and Southeast Asia.
The report has expressed alarm that despite this planetary importance, Tibet remains largely absent from international climate diplomacy, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and successive COP negotiations.
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The report has described this as “extractive colonialism”, a process in which the costs of global sustainability are borne by one of the planet’s most vulnerable ecosystems.
The resulting pollution, deforestation, and cultural displacement is found to undermine both environmental justice and human security, with the human dimension of Tibet’s transformation being equally severe.
The report has found that close to one million Tibetans have been forcibly relocated since the year 2000 under programs justified as ecological protection or poverty alleviation. What is more, many have been resettled multiple times, often without fair compensation or sustainable livelihoods. These relocations, together with demographic engineering and assimilationist education policies, erode cultural identity and weaken the traditional stewardship that has preserved Tibet’s high‑altitude ecology for centuries.
The paper has called for Tibet to be treated as a frontline of the global climate emergency, comparable in urgency to the Arctic or low‑lying island states. It has pointed out that the plateau’s stability is essential to monsoon patterns, biodiversity corridors, and continental climate regulation.
The report has presented a 10‑Point Framework for Global Action designed to embed Tibet within international climate cooperation.
The paper has stressed that protecting Tibet is not a political act but an ecological imperative that transcends national borders. Its degradation threatens Asia’s hydrological balance, undermines global carbon stability, and jeopardizes the livelihoods of nearly one‑third of humanity, the report has noted.
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