South Asian countries have stressed the importance for global leaders to establish a legally binding agreement by 2015, showing that South Asia has been seriously affected by the severe impacts of climate change. This request was made at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit held in Kathmandu. These countries have underlined that climate change represents a serious threat for the region. In this context, climate change represents one of the most urgent issues of the current political agenda. In this way, the international community needs to achieve a new legal instrument, or an agreed outcome with legal force applicable to all by the end of 2015. The regional group is formed by eight member countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. China is keen to become a member, but has been rejected by India. The country has currently the status of observer along with Myanmar. South Asian countries, who belong to the developing and least developed countries groups under the UN negotiations, have called for a global agreement just a week before the United Nations climate summit begins in the Peruvian capital of Lima. This summit will be a crucial event in order to determine the nature of the global agreement decided next year in Paris. Some experts have argued that the explicit mention of the UN negotiations in the SAARC declaration represents a significant signal. In relation to that, these countries will not be willing to change their view as intense debate between developed and developing country increases ahead of the meeting in Peru. Experts of South Asian countries argue that the new agreement should be based on the principles of common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities and equity under the UNFCCC. The countries have also decided to reinforce cooperation on disaster prevention and climate change by establishing a disaster and environment centre by unifying existing regional centres in Maldives, Bangladesh, Bhutan and India. According to Nepal’s prime minister, the countries are trying to cooperate, working effectively on environment and disasters in South Asia in order to achieve concrete results. The gLAWcal Team EPSEI project Tuesday, 28 November 2014 (Source: ChinaDialogue)