UN Secretary General Guterres vows to draw global attention towards climate change impact in Nepal

KATHMANDU: Visiting UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has pledged to bring global attention to the impact of climate change on mountain life in Nepal.

He made this commitment while visiting the Khumbu Pasang Lhyamu Rural Municipality-4 in Solukhumbu as part of his four-day official trip to Nepal.

On the occasion, Guterres engaged in an interaction with the local community to discuss the challenges posed by climate change and its impacts on their daily lives. He vowed to inform the world about the consequences of climate change in mountain regions, incorporating the input of the local residents in the upcoming COP-28, the UN Climate Change Conference.

The UN Secretary General highlighted that developed nations bear significant responsibility for climate change, but it is disheartening that rural areas like Khumbu are experiencing its consequences disproportionately, according to rural municipality chair Laxman Adhikari.

Guterres vowed to initiate efforts to mitigate the consequences of climate change and raise global awareness of the urgency of addressing these issues.

During the interaction, local residents informed him about various climate change-related issues, including the melting of snow, climate change-induced hazards, the depletion of water resources, the impact on local agriculture, and occurrences of avalanches. They also discussed the energy crisis in their locality and requested UN support for the development of micro hydropower projects.

The delegation led by Secretary General Guterres includes Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Undersecretary General for Peace Operations, the United Nations, Hanaa Singer-Hamdy, the UN Resident Coordinator in Nepal and other UN officials.

Guterres arrived in Nepal on Sunday on his four-day official visit at the invitation of Prime Minister of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

On the first day of his visit, he separately paid a courtesy call on President Ram Chandra Paudel and PM Dahal. He also had separate meetings with Nepali Congress President and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN-UML Chairman and former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, Speaker Devraj Ghimire, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Prakash Saud.

Following the meetings, Secretary General Guterres visited the Patan Durbar Square, a heritage site of historical and archeological importance.

PM Dahal hosted a banquet reception on Sunday evening in his honor.

He is scheduled to visit Pokhara, Annapurna Base Camp and Lumbini.

According to the Parliament Secretariat, he is slated to address the joint session of the Federal Parliament on Tuesday afternoon.