KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Environment is all set to establish a separate climate change fund to speed up works on climate change and increase the effectiveness of the fund received.
“We have been working on a model and the mechanism to mobilise the fund through the ministry,” said Purushottam Ghimire, Joint Secretary and Chief of the Environment Division at the ministry.
Climate change is a vast subject and donors have been providing support in the various sectors like biodiversity, mountain ecosystem and agriculture. The ministry at present has projects worth more than $200 million at hand, with the potential to receive more funds in future as the country is listed in the Least Developed Countries, and the developed nations have to support as per the commitment in international negotiations on climate change held under United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
“There is a huge opportunity to receive funds to address climate change impacts but the problem lies in our capacity to use it properly,” added Ghimire.
The environment ministry has failed to reach out to local communities as, according to officials, it does not have any subordinate units in the local levels.
Efforts to establish a separate environment department, which the concerned stakeholders have been demanding for a long time, have gone down the drain. The ministry said the proposal for the establishment of a separate environment department and its branches in various parts of the country is pending at the Ministry of General Administration.
“We have been trying for more than five years but the other ministries like Ministry of Finance and General Administration are not convinced. However, in recent days they have shown positive signs. We hope to established the ministry’s subordinate units after an MoGA approval,” said Dr Ganesh Raj Joshi, Secretary at the ministry.
Though hundreds of students graduate from various universities in the country every year, there is no separate service group in the Public Service Commission that recruits environmental science graduates.
“There are competent graduates who can work in the environmental sector but the government has not recognised the manpower yet, as there is no separate body,” said Kedar Rijal, head of the Central Department of Environmental Science, Tribhuvan University.
If established, the environment ministry will have regional offices in at least five developmental regions in the beginning. “We will expand and ultimately, each district will get the government offices that will deal with environmental issues,” said the department head.
