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Nepal seeks adequate climate funds for LDCs
Nepal, on behalf of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), has urged the international community to commit adequate funding to help the most vulnerable societiesAddressing the opening session of the global climate negotiations under the ongoing United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at Lima in Peru, Ram Prasad Lamsal, chair of the LDC group that comprises 49 countries, including Nepal, said though the pledges on climate change adaptation, including the fund allocation to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), are encouraging, they are not sufficient to deal with the increasing and intensifying risks associated with climate change in LDCs due to limited capabilities to respond and cope to these adverse impacts.
“We are still very far from reaching our target of at least 100 billion dollars per year by 2020 as committed by the developed countries in 2009. We urge concerned nations to scale up their contributions to the GCF and the Least Developed Countries Fund,” he said in a statement read during the opening session.
For the implementation of National Adaptation Programme of Actions—a blueprint to help the LDCs to respond to urgent and immediate needs to adapt to climate change such as natural disasters—an estimated five billion dollar is needed.
However, less than one billion dollars has been mobilised and paid out since the fund’s establishment in 2001.