BAKU: President Ramchandra Paudel, who is presently in Baku, Azerbaijan, leading a high-level delegation at the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the UNFCCC, has said that climate change is a shared challenge that requires collective understanding and cooperative efforts to overcome it.
In his address to a special session on "Addressing Loss and Damage in Mountains," hosted by Nepal on the sidelines of the conference, the President highlighted the importance of bringing together nations affected by climate change. He hoped that such discussions would help find a better understanding of the issue and explore practical solutions.
The session was attended by Presidents from Kyrgyzstan, the Maldives, and the Azerbaijan, as well as representatives from various countries, development partners, and the media.
The President said it is obvious that everyone feels that their issues are significant, but the recent climate-induced disasters that Nepal faced of late are devastating. Three months ago, an outburst of a glacier lake near Mount Everest swept away the Thame village. Similarly, over 500 people lost their lives to climate-change-induced disasters in Nepal in the past three months while the physical losses amounted to billions of rupees.
Similar losses were reflected in the recent flooding and inundation in Spain. Last July, the hurricane in the Caribbean region inflicted the same nature of losses. He warned that such humanitarian crises could hit any nation at any time, and stressed the need for global solidarity in addressing these challenges.
The President also called for integrated cooperation between mountainous and coastal nations, urging them to develop collective programs to mitigate the future impacts of climate change. He reiterated the need for developed countries, especially those with high carbon emissions, to provide additional support to nations most vulnerable to climate change.
President Paudel urged COP29 to prioritize the mobilization of climate finance to address these pressing issues. He specifically called for the inclusion of damages and losses in the new collective quantified goals (NCQG) for climate finance management, recognizing the multidimensional nature of climate impacts.
In closing, he recited a traditional Shanti (peace) prayer in Sanskrit, wishing for peace in the heavens, the sky, on earth, in the waters, in plants, and in trees—invoking peace everywhere. He thanked all participants for their efforts and reiterated the call for global cooperation in nature conservation.
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