Kathmandu, June 24:

Preparation of Nepal’s National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA) on climate change is going to take some more time even as six years have already passed since the NAPA concept was introduced.

The document is crucial to help least developed countries identify priority activity areas to respond to the urgent and immediate needs related to climate change and fund the activities accordingly.

The Ministry for Environment, Science and Technology is authorised to prepare the document and the UN Development Programme is assisting the ministry for this work.

The Global Environment Facility has agreed to provide $200,000 to help draft the document and UNDP office in Nepal has sought further assistance from donors to prepare an “Extended NAPA” document.

Tek Bahadur Gurung, coordinator of Climate Change Network Nepal and a programme officer at UNDP, said the preparation of NAPA document is taking time because other donors wanted to get involved in the process.

“Since some donors like DFID and DANIDA have shown interest in NAPA preparation process, we want to wait for their involvement and extend the NAPA,” he said.

“We want to involve the donors in the NAPA process itself so that it would be easier for us to get more fund in the future as well to implement the related projects,” he said.

Sandip Chamling Rai, Climate Change Officer at WWF Nepal, said the NAPA document should be finalised as soon as possible, as it opens door for Nepal to work on climate change adaptation programmes.

“NAPA should be there soon because the money for the LDCs is limited and we may not be able to claim it if we are late,” he added.