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Tackling climate challenges in Nepal –understanding the present statusThis confusion exists at global level too and the term ‘midaptation’ isused by few experts to refer the overlap between these twoapproaches

Issue Name : Vol: 08 No. -15 January. 30- 2015 (Magh 16, 2071)

Tek Jung Mahat (/News/Writer/Tek-Jung-Mahat)

2

As we welcome 2015 - the most important year in the history of

climate change which can MAKE or BREAK climate actions with implications

to several decades and many generations to come, climate change itself is

not a new issue in Nepal anymore. Nepal is signatory to the UNFCCC since

the convention took place in 1992 (with ratification done in 1994), is

taking part in negotiations as they started and has been proactive

afterwards COP 13 in Bali (2007). However Nepal’s international visibility

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increased mainly with and after COP 15 in Copenhagen (2009) where Prime

Minister-led delegation got involved in several intensive rounds of

discussions (bilateral and multilateral) and then Honorable PM Madhav

Kumar Nepal announced Mountain Alliance Initiative (MAI), following to

success of Cabinet Meeting at Kala Patthar and Summiteers Summit to Save

the Himalayas (S3H) in Copenhagen. This has further enhanced with the

organization of the International Conference of Mountain Countries on

Climate Change in April 2012 with ministerial level participation from 10

countries (Kathmandu Call for Action) and 8th community-based

adaptation to climate change conference (CBA8) in Kathmandu in April

2014 apart from periodic UNFCCC meetings, including COPs and

Intersessionals, and national to international climate relevant conference

Nepal has been contributing.

  Following this, climate change awareness, incoming funding,

process documentation, government and non-government agency

involvement and variety of efforts to tackle climate change issues have

significantly increased in Nepal with both – positive and negative

consequences. Highlights include - NAPA documented is prepared, LAPA

Framework is drawn, National Climate Change Policy is formulated, Prime

Minister-led Climate Change Council (CCC) and MOSTE-led Multistakeholder

Climate Change Initiative Coordination Committee (MCCICC) and Climate

Change Program Coordination Committee (CCPCC) are functioning, NAPA

follow-up projects are being implemented including Strategic Program for

Climate Resilience (SPCR), Nepal Climate Change Support Programme

(NCCSP) and Ecosystem-based adaptation (EBA)  among others. In addition

to this, multi-million-multi-year initiatives such as Multi Stakeholder

Forestry Programme (MSFP), Hariyo Ban Program, Kailash Sacred

Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative (KSLCDI), Koshi Basin

Programme (KBP), Comprehensive Disaster Risk Management Programme

(CDRMP), Community Based Flood and Glacial Lake Outburst Risk Reduction

Project (CFGORRP) etc are adding fuel to government works. On the top,

Carbon Finance has gained a momentum attracting Community

Development Carbon Fund (CDCF) through biogas initiatives, there has

been significant improvement in rural electrification through increased use

of solar panels, number of and energy produced from mini- and micro-

hydro has increased, and internationally Nepal just concluded its 2-years

tenure as the LDC Chair leading the UNFCCC negotiation block of 48

countries from 2012-2014. However, this is not the end of the story!

  Several experts have repeatedly expressed their views on these

issues - in written and also in verbal. Although different people have

different observations to share, in general, most experts are univocal on

the following issues:

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1.       All three aspects of climate change research (used by IPCC)

are not fully understood – the physical science basis; Impacts, Adaptation

and Vulnerability; and Mitigation of Climate Change: The reason being we

do not have adequate hydro-meteorological as well as and biological

monitoring stations and long term data in these areas are rather limited.

Sectorial impacts of climate change in various areas is not well

documented and properly researched. Lack of scientific data coupled with

gap in socio-economic understanding and population dynamics and their

interaction with natural resources makes our vulnerability assessments

less reliable. We believe there are number of ways people (our local

communities) have been adapting to various environmental changes,

including climate change for ages, however such traditional as well as

modern adaptation skills and approaches are not much documented and to

develop new adaptation means in the changed context, we do not have

clear understanding about what exactly has changed? How much has

changed? What such changes mean to us? And what and how can reverse

or minimize such changes and their effects? Of multiple reasons behind

lack of understanding in these areas, Nepal lacks research oriented

initiatives and/or is suffering from less efficient research efforts with

extremely limited involvement of academia that should be playing crucial

role in unveiling the real science behind this process.

2.            Institutional capacity building: Although the Ministry of

Science Technology and Environment (MOSTE) has been functioning

efficiently maximizing use of limited human, financial and technical

resources it has, it is increasingly felt that there needs a radical

improvement in the capacity of the ministry as well as other scientific and

administrative bodies within the ministry including Department of

Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), Alternative Energy Promotion Centre

(AEPC), National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), Department of

Environment (DoE) among others. Institutional capacity building has to

cover also other sectorial line ministries including but not limited to

Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, Ministry of Forest and

Soil Conservation, Ministry of Agricultural Development, Ministry of Energy,

Ministry of Irrigation, Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport,

Ministry of Home Affairs etc and affiliated units such as Department of

Water Supply and Sewerage, Water and Energy Commission Secretariat,

Department of Water Induced Disaster Prevention, Department of Electricity

Development, Nepal Water Supply Corporation, Department of Transport

Management, Disaster Management Section among others. Such efforts

should improve state presence from national to local level, ensuring

Kathmandu and the districts are on the same page to take climate actions.

An unavoidable measure for near future would be integration of academia

in this process.

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3.       Funding Vs efficiency and role of (inter-agency and within

the agency) coordination and monitoring: In recent years, UNFCCC

negotiations, esp. COPs are becoming battlefield of ideological war

between the developed/industrialized and developing (LDCs included)

nations, where developing countries demand additional climate support

fund from developed countries and in return agree to reduce their

potential carbon emissions and help the developed countries to do so

through different mechanism including carbon trade. Adaption is much

thriving area within UN process for climate support. Recent BBC feature

story reports more   than 500 such projects are listed in the National

Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA), which least developed countries,

including Nepal had been preparing since 2001 under the UN climate

convention. LDCs require more than $2bn to complete the 500 or more

climate adaptation projects they have identified, but not even $900m has

been made available to the fund so far. Like other LDCs, NAPA 2010

estimated that Nepal needs $350m to properly address the adaptation

issues. However a recent climate finance study by Oxfam shows that total

committed fund for climate change adaptation projects in Nepal for the

period of 2009-2012 was $550m as per the Rio Marking by donors. This

figure may increase after taking into account financial support received by

number of other agencies working in Nepal. Considering this, Nepal has to

focus in both the areas – attracting additional funding as well as making

sure available funding is effectively utilized benefitting the real

stakeholders on the ground. This should also be seen in the context of

need for an improved inter-agency (ministry-ministry, government-

nongovernment-UN-donor and private sector) as well as intra-agency

(within the ministry and departments) coordination mechanism and most

importantly in establishing an effective monitoring mechanism.

4.            Governance (both government and non-government), and

creation of ‘level playing field’ for all national and international players in

Nepal: In order to make the climate actions in Nepal more effective, time

has come that revisit our present approach and governance structure.

Through careful analysis of several elements (as suggested by ESGP[iii])

such as Architecture, Agency, Adaptiveness, Accountability, and Allocation

& Access, as well as cross cutting themes such as Power, Knowledge,

Norms, and Scale, we should be able to make a better formulation. It is

also important to create enabling environment for all climate actors in

Nepal (level playing field) to end the climate action deadlock, to

discourage ‘donor and large NGOs’ oligopoly in climate sector and enhance

our actions.

5.       Mitigation Vs Adaptation: By nature Mitigation responds to

larger systems and adaptation to people/community. Unfortunately we

have not yet fully understood how mitigation is different from adaptation,

and what the extent of overlap is. This confusion exists at global level too

and the term ‘midaptation’ is used by few experts to refer the overlap

between these two approaches. In Nepal, further clarity is needed on

Nepal’s scope and limitation on both the areas - mitigation and

adaptation. All our interventions should be classified considering this. A

simplified understanding is, mitigation affects the larger system (such as

forest, transport, energy etc) and adaptation affects people and very

locally. Although Nepal’s immediate priority is adaptation, mitigation on

the other hand, can no longer be ignored given the fact new scientific

evidences have shown several localized process such as black carbon that

effect the local climate more than global phenomenon. This also means

our adaptation actions and finances need to be further localized and

pushed outside Kathmandu as much as possible and as effectively as

possible.

6.            Climate change problem to culture and trade-mill:

Interestingly, climate changed has revealed its multiple forms in Nepal.

First it emerged as a ‘serious socio-economic and environmental problem’,

    then it became a ‘culture’ (as we think, talk and see climate change in

everything), and eventually now it is becoming a trade-mill as our

governance is weak, monitoring mechanism are not in place, and climate

change has more easy money than other sectors. This is the worst form of

climate change one country like ours face as trade-mill culture will

increase inefficiency, science will suffer from gross exaggeration, relevant

agencies will be cannibalized by powerful but unproductive agencies and

its expected users (the local communities) will never benefit from it. We

need to break this chain.

7.          Climate Change negotiations and Nepal’s niche within the

regional and international processes, including discussions on LDC Vs

Mountain Agenda vis-à-vis Nepal’s economic and geographic

realities:Nepal’s presence in international negotiations have often suffered

from clear identity crisis. We are LDC and at the same time we are

mountainous country (MC) too. One has to do with socio-economic

conditions and other has to do with the geography. This LDC-MC

divergence is seen effecting Nepal’s negotiation position. Esp. when Nepal

was chair of LDC groups. It is important that Nepal defines its fixed home

before intermittently switching in between. Such switching needs to have

conceptual clarity and Nepal, as a state, should not be used y powerful

agencies to fulfill their vested interest.

The article is the property of New Spotlight News Magazine.

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