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In February 2021, the Nepal government will be Signed a multi-million-dollar agreement with the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), through which Nepal can potentially access up to $45 million by 2025 to mitigate its emissions.
“We signed the Emission Reductions Payment Agreement (ERPA) in 2018, under which seven activities of forest conservation are being carried out,” said Deepak Kumar Kharal, a joint-secretary and chief of REDD Implementation Centre. “We aim to receive our first payment this year.”
Nepal has to reduce 9,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions in the Terai Arc Landscape to secure the funds. This is done through a combination seven activities.
“The Ministry of Forest and Environment is currently conducting an audit in the TAL region, following which the World Bank will verify our reports and then provide us with the funding,” said Kharal.
The emission reduction programme for the TAL region has been implemented. ImplementedSince 2001. It includes more than 75% of the remaining forests of South-West Nepal’s Churia range of hills, and Tarai in southern Nepal. These protected areas are an important ecological corridor. It is home to many large mammals, including tigers, leopards and elephants, as well as grasslands, forests, small and deep rivers, and grasslands.
Despite two decades of dedication to conserving forest and biodiversity in the region and numerous policies and projects with grave environmental consequences, the government has frequently initiated controversial projects.
From the proposed excavations in the Chure region to building a mega Nijgadh International Airport – all within the protected areas of TAL, the lack of political will and commitment towards climate change in the government is appalling, according to climate experts and advocates.
The Illegal excavation of riverbed materials within the Chure regionThis has had severe environmental consequences. Many villages are flooded every year during the monsoon because of the way rivers have been altered. These climate-related disasters are detrimental to soil health and soil-forming processes, and directly impact agricultural lands.
Another such contested proposal was the Nijgadh International Airport. Embroiled in a storm about its environmental impact. According to the Tourism and Civil Aviation Ministry’s February 2017 environmental and socio-economic impact assessment, the airport will require the removal of more than 2.4million small and large trees. According to environmentalists, the consequences could be devastating for many animals who call the Nijgadh forests their home.
It is striking that these actions taken in defiance of the various global commitments made by the government, including sustainable development goals, are not supported by climate advocates. The lack of political will.
“What should have been a political agenda is only a weapon for the political leaders to play with. Their narratives of development are in direct contradiction to the years of conservation efforts that have taken place,” said Tanuja Pandey, a climate activist and a third-year law student at the National Law College.
“While on the one hand politicians fiercely advocate for Nijgadh airport, our Prime Minister vows to increase forest coverage. Such inconsistency indicates that we do not have sufficient policies to avert the impending crisis.”
According to scientists, time is running out to adapt the climate crisis. They warn of a dire future and are unfolding faster than expected.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its damning report released last month, clearly warns of the swift and compounding effects of climate change – on the economy, migration, health, energy systems, food, and water securities – across the globe, and in Nepal without aggressive climate financing.
Ecosystem collapse, species extinction, deadly heat waves, floods, glacial lake outburst floods, diseases, mental stress, low agricultural productivity, and environmental displacement are among the “dangerous and widespread disruptions” the world will face over the next two decades due to global warming, the report predicts.
“The report reinforces what has already been known before. But it emphasises that all the predictions are happening faster than expected,” said Madhukar Upadhya, a climate change and climate finance expert.
According to climate experts, the IPCC report urges the international community to act quickly, as the predicted changes in our environment are occurring sooner than expected.
“The situation is getting worse, and we know that. The report corroborates that we are nowhere close to limiting the temperature to 1.5°C,” according to Manjeet Dhakal, Head of Least Developed Country (LDC) Support Team at Climate Analytics. “We have to prepare for the worst.”
According to the report preparing for the worst and keeping global temperature rise below 1.5C requires feasible, integrated mitigation solutions and adaptation solutions. These solutions must be supported by climate financing.
“This report highlights the need for climate financing. The international community has not been able to mobilize sufficient funds to combat climate change. It doesn’t match the needs of developing countries,” says Dhakal. “Alongside, we need to empower our local, provincial, and federal levels to deal with climate change within Nepal.”
Should 1.5°C temperature exceed, available evidence on projected climate risks indicates adaptation measures will likely become constrained, reduced in effectiveness, and increased in costs.
Nepal can’t solve the crisis on its own, says Bindu Bhandari, climate ambassador at Climate Interactive. She says that it is important to take immediate steps to create resilient infrastructures. She says it is essential to invest in multi-solving solutions, which can ensure health and well being, equity and justice, while also protecting the environment and economy.
According to Raju Pandit Chatri, director of Prakriti Resources Centre, (PRC), climate finance is crucial to achieve low-carbon and climate resilient development. He advocates for environmentally-friendly policies and development practices.
However, Nepal’s access and implementation of climate finance are concerning because climate change has failed to become a political agenda. In the meantime, multilateral agencies and developed countries have been found exaggerating their financial contributions to countries such as Nepal.
One striking example of this is the Earthquake Housing Reconstruction Project that the World Bank launched after the 2015 earthquakes. The project’s total budget was committed at a staggering 86 percent. It was primarily related with a response to a Geohazard and not related to climate change. Reports indicate that the funds were used to finance climate change adaptation.
Prakriti Resource Center researchers discovered that the project had over-reported $328 Million as funding for climate-resilient and adaptation development in Nepal. Climate experts believe that such reporting of climate financing in Nepal is possible as there is no way to verify whether it has climate action.
“Nepal receives development aid, which donors voluntarily give, and funds for climate action, as part of donors’ global commitment. And often, countries report their development aids as part of their global climate commitments, which we have no mechanism to check, and it ultimately disadvantages us,” according to Chhetri.
“Such over-reporting of climate finance means that we don’t get the fundings we need to deal with these climate issues.”
Climate finance can be difficult to navigate. However, there is not enough data about the funds used in Nepal for climate action.
“Since 2012, Nepal has received about $2 billion as development aid. However, there is no data to specify the amount that has been specifically dedicated for climate finance,” explains Chhetri. “We lack disintegrated data, and that raises the question whether the funds have been sufficient or effective in helping adapt to climate change.”
Politicians’ lack of ownership of the climate issue as a political one has impacted the number of funds we get and kept us from holding emitter countries responsible for their contributions to climate change that impacts Nepal disproportionately.
“Such lack of data on climate finance limits us in holding the donors – who are also the global emitters – accountable for their global climate actions,” adds Chhetri.
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