Download Nepal: A political perspective on Climate Change

Nepal: A Strategic Perspective on Climate Change1
Upendra Gautam2
Though Climate Change (CC) has moved to the centre stage of public affairs, there is no
effective policy of CC. Publications like "The Climate Change Risk Atlas" 2010i ranked
Nepal as the fourth most vulnerable country in the world after Somalia, Haiti and
Afghanistan. Why is this country so vulnerable to CC for which it is not accountable at
all?
Key Factors in CC Vulnerability
Factors really affecting contemporary Nepal's CC vulnerability are hunger, poverty and
unemployment because a large number of people are deprived of development and
equity-a fair access to both natural and financial resources.
The contemporary Nepali state has never been adequately strategic in its domestic and
foreign policies, programs and behaviors. Lack of strategicity has made the country's
leadership an appendage to others-leaving the people at the mercy of natural risk and
political uncertainties.
As such, the fundamental issue for Nepal is not the CC and any impact made by it per se.
The issue is: development of national capability according to its own national
specificities and needs.ii For example-for the Nepali people the Himalaya, Devapattan or
Lumbini are not something only environmental but also highly spiritual.iii But in the
contemporary Nepal, the leadership has never been honest enough to help develop our
national capability based on our specificity. If developed, this national capability would
have been an unassailable knowledge base on the Himalayan ecology, Buddhist-Hindu
mix civilization and associated technology.
Instead, leadership took the easy way out (though it used to keep talking nationalism)aliens would come to feed us, employ us and take care of our poverty. Even in the last 50
years of so-called planned development, it were the aliens who asked us to go for
community development, rural development, agricultural development, women-indevelopment, liberalization, privatization and so on. Now, we are asked to take care of
CC and its impact by adopting CC impact mitigation, adaptation processes and climate
resilient practices.
Nepal is in no way able to address CC impact mitigation and adaptation from a position
of national incapability. And, it will never be on the way of achieving national capability
unless the aliens' generated global CC impact issue is addressed by integrating oriental
wisdom and local capability. Pre-requisite to this is indeed our ability to think and act
strategicallyiv-meaning we take our national interest as the one which is most sacred and,
are always on the look out as to how it can be best served by developing our national
1
A note presented at the Telegraph Weekly Nepal-Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Germany seminar on "Impact
of Climate Change". The seminar was organized in Kathmandu on 23 December 2011.
2 Prof. Gautam, PhD, is President of Consolidated Management Services Nepal (CMS), a consulting firm,
which is partner institution of GWP Nepal/JVS.
capability. Identification of the following issues may help explain what do I mean by
strategic thinking and action vis-à-vis CC impact mitigation and adaptation? The
identified issues may in a small way help the deliberations of this august gathering as
well.
Issues of CC Impact Mitigation and Adaptation
Agriculture: Sustainable and long term viability of Nepal's agriculture depends on the
environmental suitability of its soil and seeds. In the name of climate change and food
security requirements, a section of global players are promoting their commercial vested
interests. Efforts are being made under a USA's bilateral project to kill sustainability and
long term local viability of Nepalese agriculture by introducing hybrid and genetically
modified seeds.v
We may, on the other hand, learn from a Chinese experience. What was done there
sounds simple: Seeds from the historically warm ecological region were used in
cultivation in region with increasing temperature- the local government and farmers'
water users association provided a cooperative mechanism in this seed technology
transfer and adaptation process. This experience showed that even in the context of
climate change, strong local institutions become the effective institutional vehicle for
inter-regional transfer and use of seed - the most important component for improved
agricultural productivity. This solution does not entail much time and cost that breeding
of new seed variety might have taken.
Distributive Justice: Studies have examined the impact of climate change on rich
and poor countries across the world. They revealed that climate change would have
serious distributional impact across countries, grouped by income per capita. It was
predicted that poor countries would suffer the most from climate change. Although
adaptation, wealth, and technology might influence distributional consequences across
countries, it was argued that the primary reason that poor countries were so vulnerable
was their location.vi ICIMOD studies show a co-relationship between the altitude and
temperature rise: the higher the altitude the higher the rise in temperature.vii
Countries like Nepal need to struggle and negotiate hard with the richer countries-which
are accountable for climate change consequences-for adequate financial compensation.
Investment in sizable clean energy and environment-friendly infrastructure will bolster
livelihood and socio-economic opportunities for the large number of poor and
unemployed people which in turn increases the national and local capability to mitigate
and adapt to climate change.
However, the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR), a part of the World Bankadministered Climate Investment Funds (CIFs), in the name of helping integration of
climate resilience in national development planning of climate vulnerable countries,
offers recipient countries a mix of grants and loans for climate adaptation projects. The
World Bank plans to provide Nepal US $ 60 million in loan and another US $ 50 million
as grant.
The Ministry of Environment wishes to spend the loan money through the relevant line
ministries for the development of infrastructure such as hydropower, bridges, roads and
other infrastructure. But the assistance process is fundamentally flawed on the ground
that it is donor-driven, it is meager in terms of the challenge, ignores the indigenous
process of social change, and disregards local development dynamics. This World Bank
CC assistance seems to define globalization as only the flow of goods, people and ideas
according to a predetermined western way in which institutional structures in developing
countries have to be shaped. viii Why should Nepal take any loan to mitigate and adapt to
the impact of CC for which it can not be held accountable on any ground? Moreover,
Nepal has been advocating for climate justice. The government of Nepal has envisioned
climate justice in its Climate Change Policy 2011.
On top of this, Nepal has submitted National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA) on
climate change to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC). The framework of NAPA implementation requires 80 per cent of the funds
of any adaptation program to flow directly to the community.
But the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) does not support NAPA priorities
and its implementation framework. It disregards the principle of country and community
ownership.ix The World Bank climate change assistance seems more to be a debt trap
than a complementary support to harness, use and institutionalize local climate change
capability. It shall be a better way to internally raise a substantial amount of money
through pollution and green taxes on fossil fuel. Financial resource from these taxes can
be appropriately used in dispensing climate justice by establishing mechanism at the local
environment and energy units.x
Geo-politics: Science and technology do improve the geo-political constraints in terms
of transport, communication, trade and tourism. But geo-political significance as
expressed by the location of a country would have critical impact on climate change
consequences. The Himalayas and the rivers originating from them are the life-line of
Nepal. For this basic reason, cooperating with China and the Republic of India for
ecological conservation and environmental-friendly utilization of the Himalayan
resources is a must. In this sense, the last November Climate Summit held in Bhutan does
not augur well for Nepal's interest.xi As China was not in the summit, the summit cared
more for partisan regional climate politics than integrating climate politics with climate
geography. For Nepal, therefore, institutional framework of cooperation on CC patterned
after International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) is perhaps
more rationale, realistic and relevant than the one seen under the South Asian Association
for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
Bottom Line
The bottom line of this short discourse is: For Nepal, Climate Change though a global
phenomenon could be successfully addressed if Nepal adopts a strategic perspective on it.
For this purpose, Nepal needs to develop its national capability according to its own
national specificities.
References
i
http://www.prevention web.net/English/professional/news/v.php?id=15379, "Maplecroft's
'Climate change Rist Atlas 2010' highlights vulnerable nations and safe havens", 17 November
2011. Also Gayatri Parameswarsn, "Nepal's growing climate change woes,"
http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/nepal%E2%80%99s-growing-climate-change-woes,
16
November 2011.
ii The concept of "national specificities" is also used by Anthony Giddens, The politics of climate
change, September 2008, www.policy-network.net, 17 November 2011.
iii Athrabaveda, Chapter 12, Section 1, Stanza 11 states, "O Earth! Pleasant be thy hills,
snow-clad mountains and forests; O numerous colored, firm and protected Earth! On this
earth I stand, undefeated, unslain, unhurt, www.akhandjyoti.org, Akhanda Jyoti Magazine
of All World Gayatri Pariwar.
iv Upendra Gautam, "Nepal: Food Security, an Institutional Irrigation Perspective", a talk
delivered at the National Conference on Water, Food Security and Climate Change (CC)
in Nepal organized by International Water Management Institute, 23-24 November,
Kathmandu, Nepal
v
Anil Bhattarai, "Better Ways than Monsanto," The Kathmandu Post, 1 November, 2011.
vi Robert Mendelsohn, Ariel Dinar and Larry Williams, "The distributional impact of climate
change on rich and poor countries," Environment and Development Economics 11: 159–178 C _
2006 Cambridge University Press, doi:10.1017/S1355770X05002755, UK
vii
Arun Bhakata Shrestha, Climate Change Impact and Glacier Melt, An ICIMOD (International
Center for Integrated Mountain Development) Paper presented at the Global water Partnership
South Asia 17th Regional Council Meeting , 5th General Assembly of GWP-SAS and
Roundtable Dialogue on Benefit Sharing in Hydropower Development organized by GWP
Nepal/JVS, 29-30 November 2011, Kathmandu.
viii The Himalayan Times, "The Climate Change Politics," 15 February 2011.
ix Keshab Thapa, "Nepal climate loans: an injustice," http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art569237, 18 November 2011.
x Lack of mechanism has made the Ministry of Environment unable to use financial resources
collected from the Pollution Tax, Pragati Shahi, "Pollution tax not utilized as planned", The
Kathmandu Post, 10 December 2011.
xi
AFP, "Nepal defends China snub for climate summit," 10 November 2011.