Kathmandu, Sept. 22
Prime Minister Mr. 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.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 23 September 2024.
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