Third Pole
The Third Pole, also known as the Hindu Kush-Karakoram-Himalayan system (HKKH), is a mountainous region west and south of the Tibetan Plateau. Part of High-Mountain Asia, it spreads over an area of more than across nine countries, i.e. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Tajikistan. The area is nicknamed "Third Pole" because its mountain glaciers and snowfields store more frozen water than anywhere else in the world except for the Arctic and Antarctic polar caps. With the world's loftiest mountains, comprising all 14 peaks above , it is the source of 10 major rivers, and forms a global ecological buffer. The Third Pole area possesses huge socioeconomic and cultural variance; being home to a range of ethnic communities conversing in more than 600 languages and many more dialects. It is rich with natural resources and consists of all or some of four global biodiversity hotspots. The mountain resources administer a wide range of ecosystem benefits and the base for the drinking water, food production and livelihoods to the 220 million inhabitants of the region, as well as indirectly to the 1.3 billion people — one sixth of the world's population — living in the downstream river basins. More than 3 billion people benefit from the food and energy produced in these river basins whose headwaters rely on meltwaters and precipitations that run off these mountains. Third Pole and climate change Climate change is now a key concern in the Third Pole. Mountain set-ups are especially sensitive to climate change and the Third Pole area is inhabited by a populace most susceptible to these global alterations. Modifications in the river systems have had a direct impact on the contentment of a multitude of people. The rate of warming in the Third Pole is considerably greater than the global average, and the rate is increased at an elevated altitude, indicating a greater susceptibility of the cryosphere environment to climate change. This trend is expected to continue. Climate change projections suggest that all areas of South Asia are likely to warm by at least 1 °C by the turn of the century, while in some areas the warming could be as much as 3.5 to 4 °C. The lives and livelihoods of those living in the Third Pole region are challenged by climate change, and the security and development of the region impacted by the Third Pole are in peril. This will have ramifications for the entire continent, and indeed the effects will be felt worldwide. However, there is insufficient awareness of this risk and its potential knock-on effects outside of the impacted region; a special effort is required to increase the attention given to the fragility of the mountain social-ecological set-up. Efforts for monitoring climate change and its impacts in the TP region World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has planned to set up a network of regional climate centers in this region and named this as TP-RCC Network. A "Scoping Meeting on the Implementation of Third Pole Regional Climate Centres