NEFEJ organizes discussion program on Nepal’s Strategic Roadmap to COP26

  • Published Date : October 1, 2021

21st September 2021, Kathmandu: NEFEJ supported Government of Nepal Ministry of Forests and Environment to organize a one-and-a-half-hour television debate program on the 26th session of the conference of the parties (COP26) to the UNFCCC. The 26th session of the Conference of the Parties is scheduled to be held from 31st October 2021 to 12th November 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland where all the signatory parties including Nepal will be participating.

Joint Secretary of Climate Change Management Division under the Ministry of Forest and Environment Dr. Radha Wagle, and Climate Change Expert Ugan Manandhar were present on the panelists side while journalist Ramesh Bhushal moderated the entire session.

During the program, Dr. Radha Wagle elaborated on Nepal’s commitment to limit the global temperature to 1.5 degree Celsius. For this, she shared that Nepal has made its commitments and set targets for reducing carbon emissions through its Nationally Determined Contributions. “Nepal has made these commitments to reduce carbon emissions even though its emissions are already low. Therefore, the developed nations have an obligation to reduce its emissions”, she said. Likewise, Climate Change Expert Ugan Manandhar stressed, ” Climate change increases the timing, frequency and intensity of the natural calamities. This is why it must be mainstreamed into our infrastructure development. Although it is expensive to do so during the initial stage of the development project, it becomes very expensive to address the issue after the impact is felt. ”

On the occasion, representatives from different organizations and institutions like Kathmandu University, Electric Vehicles Association of Nepal, FECOFUN, Nepal Forester’s Association, National Federation of Irrigation Water User’s Association, Nepal, NYCA and National Farmer’s Group Federation including journalists from different media outlets such as Sinhwa News, Setopati and Kantipur TV had participated.

Arguing on the climate change policies of the country, Bedmani Dahal from Kathmandu University questioned whether our policies were formulated by being based upon the facts and figures or were they formulated without giving priority to research findings. He suggested that this might be one reason why the policy implementation is still a challenge for us.

The event was organized by Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ) for Government of Nepal- Ministry of Forests and Environment in collaboration with Oxford Policy Management (OPM) and Policy and Inclusion Facility (PIF). The television program based on this event was broadcast through Aankhijhyal TV Program Episode 1246 (Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcwgkLkVUIE) and it will shortly be broadcast through Hakahaki Bahas official YouTube Channel.