The holding of the discourse on this should come out with some concrete steps to be undertaken on climate change adaptation

Climate change appears inevitable and the damage done by it is already evident. This has affected the least developed countries like Nepal the most. It is the developed countries which are responsible for most of the emissions of fossil fuel that has led to deterioration of the climate. The consequences of climate change have been observed in Nepal over the years. This had led to the melting of more snow in the high Himalayas sometimes causing the outburst of glacial lakes threatening those living downstream. The threat is real and action should be taken as soon as possible to reduce the fossil fuel emissions that have been the major cause of climate change. The fragile Himalayan ecosystem is under threat, and if we do nothing about it this ecosystem could be damaged irreparably.  Further climate change should be taken up seriously globally as it poses drastic consequences if it is not addressed.

Appropriately a workshop on “Local Adaptation Planning Initiatives and Learning” was held in the capital Saturday  to share various climate adaptation  approaches under the Hariyo Ban Programme. It also afforded the opportunity to share  experiences in the endeavour and learning and helping to devise strategies in order to deal with the scourge.  The workshops opted to devise methods by which projects working in climate change adaptation in Nepal could coordinate with agencies concerned as well as their networking. This is to be done at the local level. For this it is essential to create an enabling environment at the local level. Mainstreaming Local Adaptation Plans for Action (LAPA) should be done by incorporating them in the local development planning process. Meanwhile, Nepal was among the founders to officially endorse the LAPA in 2010. The preparation for the LAPA was made in accordance with the provisions of the National Adaptation Programme, 2010 and the National Framework on LAPA 2011. The thrust of the LAPA is the bottom-up approach that would help in a big way in reducing local climate vulnerabilities. It would boost the resilience among the local communities.

Over the years we have learned and also experienced much which could be used to consolidate our efforts and also mainstream climate change adaptation. In addition these plans also seek to coordinate the Local Disaster Risk Management Plan guideline and Environment Friendly Local Framework of Nepal Government. Indeed, exchange of experiences among the national level policymakers and stakeholders as to how to go about adaptation planning will be helpful. There was also support for preparation and implementation of 80 LAPAs in the vulnerable human communities. As the LAPA is a plan readied at the local level by the related stakeholders, including the community affected, and it seeks decentralization through the bottom-up planning processes, there is every reason to hope that this bid will succeed through the participation of the concerned. Plans should be implemented without delay for climate change adaptation that much of the preparatory work has been done. The holding of the discourse on this should come out with some concrete steps to be undertaken on climate change adaptation.

Cheating the public

General tendency has it that transport entrepreneurs or business community tend to cheat the general public whenever any crisis arises due to domestic or external factors. No sooner the new constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly people started confronting the shortage of petroleum products due to short supply from the Indian Oil Corporation, the sole supplier of the petroleum products to Nepal. But some transport entrepreneurs started over-charging the passengers taking advantage of the situation. People have no other option than to pay more than the price fixed as less numbers of vehicles are plying on the streets.

The Traffic Police have taken action against 1,132 public vehicles for over-charging the passengers over the weekend. The vehicle owners were found to have over-charged the commuters citing shortage of fuel. Moreover, the public vehicle owners are also found to have not followed the recently adjusted fares. The government had decided to reduce the fare after the prices of petrol and diesel went down in international market.