The climate policy concedes administering climate justice through the pursuit of environmental conservation and sustainable development with an aim to constitute a prosperous society

Nepal has a long history of baffling political instability. The constant uprising of people against the convoluted political parties along with the “never fulfilled wishes” of the common people, have kept the country and its people in the shade of extreme darkness. However, with the emergence of new faces and new leaders, new hopes of progress and amelioration has been awakened. After decades of survival on the Cimmerian shade, the country witnessed a daring leader who entirely changed the face of the country by solving the “never-ending crisis of electricity”. Mr. Kulman Ghising, the current managing director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) of Nepal, became the beacon of hope for the entire Nepalese when he completely obliterated the relentless load-shedding.

Similarly, the world leaders like Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, and Justin Trudeau proudly manifested their keen enthusiasm by advocating for environmental conservation. Nepali leaders also ensued on their footsteps to join the common force to advocate for climate change. After all, the minatory repercussion of climate change cannot be expunged.

According to the report published by the Ministry of Population and Environment (MoPE), during the United Nation Framework Convention in Germany, the government displayed the core initiatives, it has undertaken to strengthen its institution on climate change adaptation programs and extend the REDD-plus programs.

In addition, the government has also been developing essential prerequisites to conduct the effective implementation of Convention provisions. The report echoes, “The country has also established the Recovery and Reconstruction Authority to rebuild Nepal after the earthquake. Several non-governmental and community-based organizations are also engaged in strengthening national and local entities to provide services to the climate vulnerable communities.”

The coordination mechanisms have been established by the Nepal government, which ensures essential coordination and guidance of policy at the highest political level and at the local level for effective implementation. The establishment of Climate Change Council, Climate Change Coordination Committee and REDD Coordinating and Monitoring Committee have succeeded in catering guidance and functions to align the change with development activities.  Nepal’s Climate Change Policy initiated in 2011 envisions a safe and sound Nepal isolated from the adverse impacts of climate change. This climate policy concedes administering climate justice through the pursuit of environmental conservation and sustainable development with an aim to constitute a prosperous society.

The policy further aims at reducing greenhouse gas emission and enhances climate adaptation and resilience capacity of vulnerable communities for optimum utilization of natural resources and their efficient management. The government of Nepal has been emphasizing on the provision of mitigating measures to address the adverse impacts of climate change, along with the adoption of adaptive strategies to produce mitigation-friendly forest management systems.

On the other spectrum, various educational institutions and environmental organizations have played a very monumental role in sprinkling the seeds of awareness on environmental conservation. Today farmers in the remote parts of Nepal are very knowledgeable about the impacts of climate change.

Women, especially from the vulnerable communities are educated on the mitigation measures with the adaptive approach to tackling the adversities imposed by climate change. Similarly, children in schools at different parts of Nepal are educated about climate change and are taught to conserve the environment.

The active collaboration between government and private organizations has sparked a wave of change at addressing the depressing issues of climate change. The association between the government of Nepal and the UNDP Nepal (United Nation Development Programme) have collaterally implemented the Climate Change Support programme in 14 districts of Nepal.

The ongoing support of UNDP to address the rising issues of climate change have helped the government to extract effective development programme to strengthen its delivery capacity to make the most efficient use of limited resources and to help local communities to adapt and build resilience to climate change. The programme has also been featured as a global best practice and has been acknowledged at the 2015 Paris Convention on Climate Change.

With the positive initiative taken by the government, the local election has successfully embarked at various parts of Nepal. As the detrimental impacts of climate change and environmental deterioration have been strongly prevalent in various remote parts of Nepal where immediate action cannot be accessible, people have high expectations and are hopeful from the current political leaders to tackle the changing status of Nepal’s environment. A country that has strongly stood against the draconian earthquake of magnitude of 7.6 in Richter scale, can etiolate all the rising issues of climate change if the new political system manages to implement all the existing policies, and strengthen the association with private organizations.