By Our Reporter

A jumbo team from Nepal has reached Baku, Azerbaijan, to participate in COP 29. The CIAA has sought clarification from the Ministry of Forest for carrying the jumbo team to Baku.

President Ramchandra Paudel is leading the Nepali delegation to COP29. He addressed the high-level World Leaders Climate Action Summit at the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP-29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on Tuesday.

In his address, President Paudel said even though Nepal’s carbon emission is negligible, the country is suffering terrible consequences of global warming and climate change.

 He said that climate justice and climate finance, including reparations for loss and damage, are his paramount concerns.

He said, “In fact, we are reeling from some recent climate-related disasters--glacial lake outburst and devastating floods that caused damages worth tens of billions of rupees.  The scale of destruction is so immense that recovery and reconstruction present a severe challenge given our limited resources and capacity.”

 He said that climate change has affected the whole planet, but its impacts have been especially severe in poor, least developed, developing nations and SIDS.

Meanwhile, an agreement has been signed between the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Ministry of Forest and Environment for the implementation of two major climate resilience projects in Nepal.

The agreement for around US $ 10.5 million was signed on Tuesday at the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP-29) in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The first project, Managing Watersheds of Enhanced Resilience of Communities to Climate Change in Nepal (MaWRiN), will receive US $9.2 million in funding from GEF and will be implemented in the Marin watershed area in Sindhuli district.

The second project, Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT), funded with US $1.65 million from GEF, will focus on enhancing Nepal’s capacity to meet reporting requirements under Article 13 of the Paris Agreement.