PM Oli, UN chief Guterres meet in New York, discuss climate change

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Sept. 23: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli held a meeting with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres at the UN headquarters in New York on Saturday evening. 

According to the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations in New York, on the occasion, Guterres said that the agenda of climate change is the priority of the UN including drastic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and addressing vulnerabilities of mountain countries like Nepal. He stressed that climate finance should be adequate for the developing countries including the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to focus both on mitigation and adaptation. 

The Secretary-General also stressed deeper reforms of the international financial architecture for enhanced financial support to developing countries as well as for simplified access to development finance. 

Likewise, Prime Minister Oli recalled the Secretary-General’s recent visit to Nepal including his address to the Parliament, and expressed his happiness to inform that Nepal has enforced the act on transitional justice based on a victim-centric approach, guidance from the Supreme Court and the international norms. 

He assured the smooth implementation of the act to resolve the issues of transitional justice once and for all, informed the Mission. 

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Oli also highlighted the devastating impacts of climate change in Nepal including the latest permafrost in Thame.

He thanked the Secretary-General for raising the issue of climate change impacts in Nepal and advocating for support to tackle them. The Prime Minister informed Guterres that Nepal is convening Sagarmatha Sambad (Sagarmatha Dialogue) with a view to championing the agenda of the mountain ecosystem and extended his cordial invitation to the Secretary-General to visit Nepal again to address this dialogue platform. 

According to the Mission, PM Oli stated that Nepal is now focused on economic transformation based on the vision of ‘Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali’. He expressed that Nepal is committed to graduating from the LDC category by 2026 and to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). He called the Secretary-General to urge the development partners and international community to enhance the development assistance to Nepal to this end.  

Likewise, as the largest Troops and Police Contributing Countries (TPCC) in the UN peace missions, PM Oli said that Nepal is committed to contributing to the maintenance of international peace and security, he underlined. He urged the Secretary-General to provide high-level posts for Nepal both in the headquarters and in the field.   

Recalling his visit to Nepal, Secretary-General Guterres expressed his deep concern over the accelerated melting of glaciers and the damage caused by it. He assured of his every effort to enhance the resources in the Loss and Damage Fund.  

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Oli also addressed the ‘Parliamentary Forum on Financing the Future: Aligning Finance with the Promise of the Paris Agreement’ organised by the Parliamentarians for a Fossil Free Future and Rainforest Action Network as the keynote speaker. 

In his address, he stressed the importance of phasing out fossil fuels to prevent catastrophic climatic disasters that are becoming more frequent and severe than ever. Underscoring the adverse effects of global warming in the countries in special situations including the LDCs, PM Oli urged for increased investment in green and renewable energy technologies, just transition to renewable energy and vulnerable countries’ better access to climate funds.  

Likewise, United Nations High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States and Under Secretary General, Rabab Fatima, paid a courtesy call to Prime Minister Oli where the two exchanged views on the Nepal-UN partnership, the graduation of Nepal from the LDC category and the upcoming Third International Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDC3) among others, informed the Mission.  

Similarly, speaking at a side event ‘LDCs in the International Development Financing: What Changes can be expected from the Fourth United Nations Conference on Financing for Development’, Foreign Secretary Sewa Lamsal emphasised that vulnerability assessment and capacity building of the least developed countries must be prioritised in concessional financial allocation to these countries to enable them to better access and utilize the concessional resources.