Nepal to start ‘Sagarmatha Sambad’ soon : Minister Basnet

Nepal is going to begin ‘Sagarmatha Sambad’, (Sagarmatha Dialogue) a flagship global forum to generate discourses with the rest of the world on the burning issues facing Nepal as well as the other countries across the globe. The event is aimed at shining a spotlight on the issues mostly related to ecology and environment to begin with, it was shared. Minister for Forest and Environment Shakti Bahadur Basnet made an announcement about Sagarmatha Sambad during the ministerial-level UN Climate Action Summit-2019 held in UAE in June 29-30 this year. Similarly, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, while addressing a reception in France in June this year, had also shared about Nepal hosting the event by the end of this year. Minister Basnet informed participants of the two-day summit that Nepal was preparing the proposal to update the National Commitment on reducing carbon emissions and reduce the adverse effects of climate change by 2020. Nepal had presented this proposal to United Nations Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn, Germany in 2016. The Environment Minister also shared that although Nepal had made negligible contribution (0.027 per cent) to climate change, it was one of the hardest hit countries. He had proposed to allocate budget for reducing the adverse effect of climate changes on countries like Nepal. Minister Basnet told the global leaders from 80 countries attending the event that more than 500 million saplings would be planted as the Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had launched the National Afforestation Programme on June 29 this year. The UN Climate Action Summit-2019 is being held in the USA in September this year.(RSS)