Report of the Webinar: Climate Crisis in Tibet – Part I: CCP’s Tibet Takeover: Wither Global Climate Action?

Ute Wallenböck, Jonathan Ping, Mark S. Cogan, Tsering Topgyal, Jagannath Panda, Lena Fargier and Alexander Droop

Conference & Workshop Reports January, 2025

This report is an outcome of the webinar titled “Climate Crisis in Tibet”, organized by the Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs (SCSA-IPA) at the Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP), which was held on December 18, 2024. This significant online platform brought together a distinguished panel of experts to explore the environmental and geopolitical impacts of China’s policies in Tibet. This webinar addressed a few critical questions:

  1. What is the nature and scope of the environmental degradation in the Tibetan Plateau? 
  2. What is the extent and ambit of the CCP’s policies for governing Tibet that particularly impact Tibet’s environment? 
  3. What are the projected objectives of the CCP vis-à-vis Tibet (e.g., development aims to end poverty)?  
  4. And what is the true nature of its policy frameworks, including disinformation campaigns (e.g., via influencer management firms) and China’s persecution of Tibetan environmental activists?  
  5. What has been the actual short-term and long-term impact on the Tibetan region and its people due to the CCP’s policies? 
  6. How is China’s control of Tibetan territories, including religion and culture, impacting Tibet’s climatic conditions? 
  7. Are the CCP’s actions, including militarization and laws, in Tibet that have repercussions on Tibet’s climate change irreversible? 
  8. How can international multilateral forums, such as the IPCC, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and ICIMOD, include Tibetan voices and concerns proactively without fear of Chinese retaliation? 

Download and read the full report of the webinar here.

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