National civil society organizations have called on the government to adopt a well-defined domestic policy and a well-prepared international negotiation to demand justice and reparations for the climate impacts in the COP28 to be held in Dubai from November 30 to December 12.
Civil society members urged the developed countries to fulfill their responsibility towards ensuring climate justice, especially for developing and least developed countries.
“A total of 40 organizations and 90 individuals endorsed a declaration demanding that the rich and industrialized countries should fulfill their climate finance commitments towards developing and least developed countries, including Nepal,” said Rural Reconstruction Nepal, an NGO based in Nepal.
Sharing the stark fact in the consultation meeting held in Kathmandu on Monday, Bhagawan Shrestha from the Association of INGOs in Nepal said, “Nepal contributes 0.027% to greenhouse gas emissions but lies in fourth place in terms of facing climate change impacts.”
“Developed countries, which historically bear the responsibility for the climate crisis and benefited from the activities emitting the most greenhouse gas, must step up and take the responsibility to mitigate climate change impacts,” Arjun Kumar Karki from Rural Reconstruction Nepal emphasized.
Similarly, Thakur Bhandari from the Federation of Community Forest Users of Nepal (FECOFUN) stated, “The contribution of 14 million community-forest users in alleviating the impacts of climate change must be acknowledged. Nepal must be compensated as it faces disproportionate impacts and such compensation must reach the ground level.”
Divas Rai, NEFIN Nepal General Secretary, said that women, indigenous groups and minorities are at the receiving end of the climate crisis. “Indigenous communities are inherently dependent on nature and would be the first to be impacted by climate change. Hence, they should be an important stakeholder in policy-making,” said Rai.
Civil society members demanded a departure from the business-as-usual approach when the government and civil society members will be participating at the annual climate conference (COP 28).
Likewise, Bharati Pathak, the member of Parliament of Bagmati Provincial Assembly, demanded transparency, decentralization and localization of climate finance, “There should be a clear mechanism of decentralization and localization of policy-making as well as distribution of funds," said Pathak.
Initiated by Rural Reconstruction Nepal, as many as 40 organizations including LDC Watch, Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) and South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE) participated in the consultation program.
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