Sunday, November 27, 2005

Nepal wants well-off nations to pay for climate change

Razen Manandhar
Kathmandu, November 26[2005]:

Nepal has decided to express concern and seek compensation for deterioration of country’s natural resources due to emission of harmful gases by the industrialised nations at an international conference that begins on Monday. As many as 189 countries are participating in the Conference of Parties of United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to be held from November 28 to December 9 in Montreal, Canada. Joint-secretary of Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, Lok Darshan Regmi, will represent Nepal in the conference. His agenda: how can Nepal benefit from the Clean Development Mechanism.
“I will raise the issue of making the industrialised countries compensate us for the deterioration of our resources, caused due to climate change,” he told The Himalayan Times before leaving the country. He said poor families in Dolakha and Solumkhumbu had to be evacuated due the possibility of bursting of the mountain lakes, which is a direct fallout of climate change caused by the emission of harmful gases into the atmosphere. He claimed that scores of mountain lakes are on the verge of bursting due to the effects of climate change. “We have not harmed the earth. Rather, we have conserved the world environment by following traditional life style, practicing eco-friendly technologies and growing trees. We need to be paid as per the provision of Kyoto Protocol,” he said.
The Kyoto Protocol, effective from February 12, has a provision that the industrial countries should reduce carbon emission and if that is not possible must pay the countries or institutions
that have played a prominent role in growing trees or sequestrating carbon, thus earning carbon credits for lowering the amount of harmful gases in the atmosphere. Regmi says Nepal recently set a record in developing community forests through people’s efforts, earning carbon credits that can be sold in the carbon trading market. Regmi informed, “We will ask the Clean Development Mechanism executive board to accept carbon credits generated by non-renewable sources of energy like bio-mass projects as well.”