Opinion
Prospects in Paris
Nepal could drum up support at the global climate summit to turn its fuel crisis into a low carbon opportunityNavin Singh Khadka
Environment Minister Bishwendra Paswan has something to proudly proclaim at the climate summit kicking off in Paris next week. That he cycles to and from his office these days will perfectly befit the global meet’s agenda: curb greenhouse gas emissions to avoid dangerous climatic changes.
Whether Paswan would have still cycled if there were no fuel crisis is debatable. But since he has chosen to paddle to work instead of using a government vehicle, he has certainly led by example. While that may earn him applauds in the meet that will see high-profiled opening speeches including one by US President Barrack Obama, it will not be enough for the energy crippled country to seize the opportunity.
A compelling case
The government delegation will have to convincingly show that it has seriously pursued a clean energy strategy in the wake of the fuel crisis. These could include speeding up hydro, solar and wind power plant projects, facilitating the import of electric and hybrid vehicles, restarting the manufacture of Safa tempos, and distributing clean energy cooking stoves. Narrating to the summit how Nepal is trying to turn the fuel crisis into a low carbon opportunity will indeed be fascinating for the tens of thousands of participants including more than 150 head of states. It could be a compelling story for some of them. And if a few of them happen to be serious donors, the job will be done.
It is just that the country needs to talk business. Else, it might be yet another gathering bedevilled by bureaucracy that has been there for the past 20 years. But climate conferences have also emerged to be significant business venues in recent times. Massive spaces are allocated in these conferences for non-government organisations and the private sector to showcase what they have been doing in the fight against climate change. Many of such stalls attract visitors and serious deals are struck. It could be either public or private finance, or both.
But the key question is: has Nepal prepared itself that way? The answer can be anybody’s guess. But it is not too late though. The summit lasts for two weeks, and if the government prepares a plan on a war footing, it is still doable. There is no dearth of climate-related plans and programmes the country has prepared with the support of many donors. They can provide enough reference for a broad plan for switchover to clean energy. There is a fully-fledged entity called the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre under the Ministry of environment, with years of experience and massive support of the donor community.
The buzzwords these days are ‘climate-smart’ and ‘low-carbon intensive’. What better time than this to cash in on the right climate within the donor community?
This, however, is not to say that Nepal should tell the world that it is washing its hands of fossil fuels altogether. That clearly is not practicable. But just when there is this ‘realisation’ that the country cannot be too dependent on one source for its energy security any longer, stepping up the renewable energy agenda will surely be a timely move.
Make the right noises
If only it was serious about the first phase of projects launched this month by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the biggest climate financing mechanism designed under the UN climate convention, Nepal would have long applied for funding for at least one programme. The GCF, that aims to have $100 billion by 2020, has awarded eight projects earlier this month, and two of the recipient countries were from South Asia. Of the total $168 million, Bangladesh received $40 million for ‘Climate Resilient Infrastructure Mainstreaming’ and the Maldives $23.6 million for ‘Supporting Vulnerable Communities’. Some have criticised the GCF for rushing through the projects but, understandably, it had to send a message to the donors that the ball had begun to roll and that more funding would be required as soon as possible.
“There are many projects under development in GCF’s pipeline, and we are at last starting to deliver on our mission to advance the global response to climate change,” the fund’s executive director Hela Cheikhrouhou said, while announcing the selection of the first eight projects.
It is true that the fund is yet to secure its own funding sources. But right now, it
does not even have 10 percent of the funds it aims to have annually by 2020, and there is still no clarity where the money will come from.
The same is the story with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), another major environmental funding mechanism that funded nearly 100 of the 500 adaptation projects of the 48 least developed countries including Nepal. An investigation I did
last year revealed that because the funding source of GEF dried up, the remaining
of the 400 projects have been almost abandoned. But GEF now says things are changing.
“By the end of the current funding cycle in June 2018, it is estimated that the GEF will be making about $3 billion available to developing countries to help address climate change, with the potential of $25 billion to be leveraged from other sources,” GEF said in a recent statement titled ‘The Opportunity of Paris: Accelerating Transformation for Climate Action’.
Whether these financial agencies will actually be able to secure funding or not remains to be seen. But that cannot be an excuse for Nepal to not to prepare for the transformation of its energy base to renewable. When entities like GCF and GEF can pin their hopes on the Paris summit there is no reason why Nepal should not. It has a genuine problem of petroleum crisis which can be a promising prospect for clean energy switchover. All it needs to do is make the right kind of noises.
Khadka is a BBC journalist based in London