Climate change has put millions of lives at risk: Nepal PM

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has said climate has left a negative impact in the lives of millions of people in Nepal who are trying to come out of the vicious circle of poverty.

Addressing a roundtable conference called by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Tuesday, PM Nepal said climate change had impeded the progress of on programmes focused at achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in Nepal.

Changing climatic patterns have already started leaving impacts in agricultural productivity and food security. Untimely rain, delay in monsoon and unanticipated floods and landslides that have become quite regular now have left a negative impact in the livelihood of people and have displaced many people from their villages, said PM Nepal.

Likewise, PM Nepal also highlighted the risk created by global warming on Himalayan glaciers. The melting of snow in the Himalayan region of Nepal is increasing due to the global warming, he said. More than million people are dependent on the water flowing from the Himalayas, Nepal added.

The size of one of our glaciers Chchho Rolpa has increased from 0.23 sq. km in 1950 to 1.76 sq. km in 2002. According to some reports about two dozen glaciers in Nepal might burst anytime and that could cause a huge loss of life and property.

He also said Nepal had to face severe problem due to global warming, although Nepal’s contribution towards emission of green house gases was less than 0.025 per cent.

PM Nepal also informed the conference of the measures Nepal had taken to minimize and combat the impacts of climate change.

We have established a separate environment ministry, formed a high-level climate change council, Nepal said. We have prioritized tree plantation and protection and been able to maintain forest in 39.6 per cent of our land.

PM Nepal said underdeveloped countries are more affected by climate change than the developed ones because the developed countries had resources combat the impact of climate change to some extent while, the underdeveloped ones didn’t have much alternatives.

PM Nepal urged for the establishment of an international fund to help the underdeveloped countries combat climate change as such countries lacked the resources to do so.

PM Nepal also met with Bolivian President Evo Morales on Tuesday. PM Nepal and President Morales talked about issues related to Constituent Assembly, drafting new constitution, establishment of an equitable society and equitable distribution of natural resources. Bolivia also had an election to CA recently.

On the sidelines of the roundtable, PM Nepal also held meetings with Qatari Prime Minister Sheik Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani, Korean President Lee Myung-bak and attended luncheon hosted by the UNSG Moon and a reception hosted by the President of Nauru and Chairman of Pacific Island Developing States.