Categories
Integrated Water Resources Management Regional

Need of the Hour: Translating Water Policies into Action

Photo by Purna Chandra Lal Rajbhandari

Home to the mighty Himalayas, Nepal is rich in water resources. Major rivers emerge from its snowfields and glaciers, cascade through gorges and valleys, and flow into the flatlands of the Terai region.

But despite its water abundance and large potential for hydropower generation, Nepal’s rivers are yet to deliver on the nation’s dreams and hopes of prosperity.

Nepal’s water resources are widely and unequally dispersed, leading to both abundances and shortages depending on season and locations. The country also imports electricity to meet its demands while hydropower infrastructure is gradually being developed.

Furthermore, climate change impacts pose a serious threat to the development and livelihoods of different communities. 

People’s aspirations and expectations demand an encouraging policy environment that accelerates water sector improvements and contributes to the country’s current slogan of a ‘prosperous Nepal, happy Nepali’.

Therefore, suitable policies must be developed and implemented to significantly improve the Nepali people’s qualities and standards of living in a sustainable manner.

Nepal’s new Constitution, adopted in 2015, states that every citizen has the right to a clean and healthy environment. It further prescribes that the State shall carry out multi-purpose development of water resources, ensuring the availability of energy, developing sustainable and reliable irrigation, and reduce water-induced disasters by adopting good river management.

The new federal structure allocates the responsibility of managing water resources to all three tiers of government (federal, provincial, local) on the basis of project size.

A comprehensive review of policies, strategies, plans, and legislation related to the water resources sector in Nepal was recently carried out under the CARE for South Asia project. 

The study revealed that water sector policies in Nepal, which underpin the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), are evolving as the country ushers in a new era of federalism. 

The Water Resources Strategy 2002 was pivotal in directing the adoption of a policy based on resource conservation, environmental protection, and an understanding that river basins should be holistically managed by decentralized, autonomous, and accountable agencies.

The ideas of economic efficiency and social equity were set up to be the cornerstone of all policies.

Complementing the government’s policy landscape, the National Water Plan 2005 laid out short, medium, and long-term action plans to achieve stated national goals.

The Government of Nepal recently unveiled the National Water Resources Policy 2020 with the goal to sustainably conserve, manage and carry out multi-purpose development of water resources to contribute to the economic prosperity and social transformation of the country. It accepts multi-sectoral dimensions of water and embraces IWRM principles, including adopting the basin as a unit of water administration.

This new policy spells out the objectives and lays out strategies to achieve them, each defined by action plans. These include the remittance of river basin plans that cover water accounting, allocation and auditing, and prescribing a science and fact-based approach in its planning and management.

The existing legal framework for water resources management in Nepal is still set out in the Water Resources Act 1992 and complemented by the Water Resources Rules 1993.

The primary features of this Act, among others, are:

a) defining ownership of water resources with the nation; 
b) requiring permits for water uses; 
(c) institutionalizing water user groups; and 
(d) setting the priority order of water use as drinking water, irrigation, agriculture, hydropower, etc., respectively.

Over the years, the Government has promulgated more than 75 policies, acts, rules and guidelines with direct bearings on how water resources are developed and managed.

The Irrigation Policy 2013, Electricity Act 1992, Hydropower Development Policy 2001, and Environment Protection Act 2019 are key examples.

One can conclude that the water resources sector is a heavily regulated sector that often confuses the private sector and deters stakeholders from sustainable engagement.

The situation at the provincial level, however, is slightly different. The provincial governments are yet to fully enact their own legislations related to water and conform to the spirit of federalism. 

The federal level needs to set a clear set of standards, umbrella policies and Acts to systemize provincial and local actions.

The review reveals that Nepal faces numerous challenges and its primary need is to translate policies into actions. 

Major bottlenecks include lack of capacity, inefficient coordination mechanisms, and overlapping responsibilities of federal, provincial, and local authorities.

Institutions need to be strengthened to build climate adaptation and resilience at all levels. Water harvesting, inter-basin transfers, enhancing water use efficiencies and reuse, as well as groundwater development, can all be adopted for the sustainable development of the water sector in Nepal as drivers for prosperity.

 

The writer is Water Resources Management Specialist at ADPC

Email: laxman.sharma@adpc.net

Categories
Climate-smart Agriculture Regional

The Nexus between Climate Change and Food Security

Photo by Praveen Kumar

Scientific data is more than enough to conclude that climate change is faster than ever before. But are we changing fast enough to face the greatest development and humanitarian challenges?

Many of the potential impacts of rapid changes in climate have been modeled at multiple levels, including impacts on one of the most fundamental human rights: food. But the question is whether we are transforming the food security sector fast enough to achieve the net-zero emission target by 2050, while ensuring people have access to not only enough, but also nutritious food. 

In this context, does the food security sector possess the agility and flexibility to face climate extremes so that everyone has access to nutritious, quality food? 

The first World Food Summit held in 1996 explains that food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, 2021). 

Climate change disproportionately impacts all dimensions of food security, including the quantity, quality, access, and food preferences. 

The impact of climate change in South Asia can jeopardize global food security

South Asia is not an exception. On the one end, the region is highly vulnerable to climate change and variability; on the other end, it is a key player in global food supply and value chains. Hence, climate change impacts in South Asia will not only derail the region’s food security, but also jeopardize food supply and value chains on a global scale.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate-related drivers of impacts in South Asia include a warming trend, extreme temperatures, extreme precipitation, dry spells, damaging cyclones, and sea-level rise.

Increased risk of crop failures and lower production are inevitable in the region by 2050. Water scarcity in arid areas will continue to reduce production and productivity. Furthermore, increased risks of drought-related water and food shortages, which cause malnutrition, pose significant threats to the region. 

On the other hand, floodplains, lower river basins, and deltas will face increased riverine, coastal and urban flooding, leading to widespread damages to infrastructure, croplands, livestock, livelihoods, markets, and settlements, therefore posing significant risks to food security.

Sea-level rise and sea-water intrusion will also reduce arable lands in South Asia, thus impacting the food production and supply in major parts of the region. 

Climate change will further exacerbate poverty, inequalities, and vulnerabilities; putting the food security of the region at extreme risk. IPCC projects that food insecurity will be a significant challenge by the middle of the 21st Century, resulting in the largest number of food-insecure people of the world living in South Asia.

Climate change mitigation: an option or a need of the hour?

In line with the Paris Agreement, South Asian countries have committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and limiting global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius. Achieving these goals are possible by focusing on key contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Around 21-37% of total GHG emissions globally are attributed to the food security sector.

Therefore, climate change mitigation in the food security sector is no longer a choice but the only option. For South Asia, all countries in the region need to integrate climate mitigation measures into their food security sectors while updating their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). 

Agro-infrastructure, farm machinery, farming practices, waste disposal, post-harvesting losses, food waste, transport, storage, agro-based value added product manufacturing, supply, and value chains need to be transformed to achieve net-zero emissions targets. 

Climate innovations are needed now more than ever before to ensure food security concerns are addressed, adaptation options are scaled up, and emissions are reduced through clean and renewable energy sources.

Adaptation options through the prism of food security

Photo by Praveen Kumar

Adaptation to climate change should be a critical component of the region’s resilience-building strategy. Some of the key adaptation options include:

1. Policy and practice coherence: 

Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2, 3 (no poverty, zero hunger, and good health and wellbeing respectively) are directly linked to food security. Failure to achieve these goals by 2030 will inevitably lead to food insecurity in the region. On the other hand, both adaptation and mitigation in the food security sector are important in the implementation of the Paris Agreement. To ensure food and livelihood security, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR 2015-2030) also emphasizes investing in critical sectors to reduce disaster risk.

Therefore, countries in South Asia need to look at food security through policy coherence in implementing global frameworks at local levels.

2. Data-driven decision support tools for agro-early warning systems:

Climate and disaster analytics play a crucial role in selecting appropriate mitigation and adaptation options in the food security sector. Agro-Early Warning System (AEWS) is a critical component of adaptation strategies. The AEWS should be designed utilizing local practices, knowledge, and know-how coupled with advanced data gathering, projections, and forecasting tools to enable policymakers, technocrats, and at-risk communities to make risk-informed decisions in time.

3. Regenerative agriculture practices:

Regenerative agriculture practices support the reversing of climate change by rebuilding degraded soil and restoring organic matters and biodiversity while improving the water cycle. 

Regenerative agriculture will be a vital instrument in maintaining and restoring topsoil to meet future production demands. This will also contribute to the production of healthy and quality foods that will contribute to food security in the region.

4. Research, innovations, and scale-ups:

Investing in research related to impacts, losses, and adaptation options including drought and flood resilient varieties, pests, and diseases, is critical to meeting food security needs.

Promising climate resilience practices (including ecosystem-based approaches and vertical home gardening) need to be scaled-up across the region to have a greater impact in this sector.

5. Enabling environment through policies, markets, institutions, and governance: 

The resilience of the food security sector can be enhanced through risk governance and risk reduction measures, such as insurance markets, index-based weather insurance, and other policy instruments, to promote adaptation and reduce GHG emissions.

The food security sector has already been under severe strain due to disasters and climate change before COVID-19 reached the region. 

The pandemic has complicated the situation and created new vulnerabilities that make the sector even more fragile.

If the region is to meet food security demands and continue playing its dominant role in the global food supply and value chains, climate change mitigation and adaption are no longer an option; rather, it is an urgent priority. If it is not integrated into policies, strategies, and programs as a priority area, SDG Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) will take a long time to achieve.

 

The writer is Director, Preparedness for Response and Recovery (PRR) Department at ADPC.

Email: sisira@adpc.net

Categories
Policy and Planning Regional

Nepal’s Strategic Engagement in COP26

Photo by Purna Chandra Lal Rajbhandari

N

epal is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, with frequent flash floods, glacial outbursts, droughts, landslides, heat waves, cold spell, and unpredictable rainfall.

An increase in these climate impacts in recent years already threatens Nepal’s development efforts, lives and livelihoods, particularly of women and marginalized groups.

The Government of Nepal is a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and has ratified the Paris Agreement that was adopted during its 21st session. Nepal, as a Least Developed Country (LDC), has a high stake in the outcome of the UNFCCC’s negotiations process. 

The Government of Nepal has been actively participating in the negotiation process of each Conference of Parties (COP) and communicating its challenges and opportunities related to climate change to the world.

In accordance with the UNFCCC’s provision, Nepal has taken various initiatives in devising appropriate policies, legal instruments, programs, and institutional and financial arrangements toward climate resilience.

Nepal has recently endorsed: National Climate Change Policy 2019; Environment Protection Act 2019 and Regulations 2020; National Framework for Local Adaptation Plan of Action 2019; Climate Resilient Planning and Budgeting Guidelines 2020; Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) and Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan 2020; and submitted its second Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in 2020 as a part of the Paris Agreement.

Starting a greener journey together

Nepal’s second NDC is ambitious and estimated to cost US$28.4 billion, of which Nepal can only manage US$3.4 billion of from its own financial resources. Furthermore, this estimate does not include the costs of adaptation components and the cost of policies, measures, and actions.

In 2021, Nepal plans to communicate its Third National Communication Report, NDC implementation plan/roadmap, National Vulnerability and Risk Assessment, National Adaptation Plan (NAP), and Long-Term Low Greenhouse Gases Emission Development Strategy 2050.

Nepal has demonstrated strong leadership in taking localized climate action and inviting development partners to be part of this journey, recognizing that the participation of all relevant stakeholders is very crucial to contribute towards the implementation of the National Climate Change Policy and action plans.

On 12 December 2020, during the Global Climate Ambition Summit, the Honorable Prime Minister of Nepal highlighted that:

Nepal is seeking easy and adequate access to climate finance, which becomes critical for the implementation of ambition and Nepal seeks the hands of all countries to march ahead for the greener journey together.

 

The United Kingdom Government is hosting the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow in November 2021, where the Government of Nepal proactively aims to engage more strategically and effectively at the national and international level to raise awareness of the needs and priorities of the country.

Notably, these engagements include the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement, climate finance needed for rolling out of its national and international commitments, and the mountain agenda. 

The mountain agenda is critical for Nepal, as glacier melting is not only affecting the livelihoods of millions of people who benefit from the ecosystems of mountains, but it is also threatening the future of humanity by making living conditions more challenging. Therefore, Nepal has an unprecedented opportunity to ensure its heightened international profile on climate change and also leverage and mainstream non-traditional and low-carbon financing.

It is also important to ensure that UNFCCC policies and funding instruments will benefit Nepal. The Government of Nepal aspires to engage national and international partners to be able to strengthen Nepal’s participation in the COP26 in a variety of events, communications, and knowledge management initiatives.

In this regard, the Ministry of Forests and Environment (MoFE) has prepared a UNFCCC COP26 roadmap to systematically engage relevant government institutions and development partners in the process.

Key pillars of the roadmap

Nepal seeks to have strong leadership and representation in the COP26 and bring forward different agendas, including loss and damage, climate finance, adaptation and resilience, enhanced transparency framework, and the mountain agenda.

Positioning itself strongly, Nepal seeks to engage in negotiations, showcase successes and innovation, and secure climate finance to meet its national adaptation and mitigation targets.

MoFE organized initial consultations in 2020, engaging wider national stakeholders represented by government, non-government, and development partners to understand their interests and contributions, and to extend partnerships.

The inputs were received to organize strategic events, communications, and knowledge management initiatives, where the Government of Nepal will take the lead in collaborating with relevant national and international development partners.

Furthermore, inputs received were classified into the following four broad areas of engagement:

1. Showcasing Nepal’s climate change agenda in COP26

  • Nepal’s commitment as per the Paris Agreement: 

Nepal will highlight its policy landscape and programmatic interventions, including forthcoming documents in 2021: Third National Communication, National Adaptation Plan, adaptation communication, National Climate Vulnerability and Risk Assessment, NDC implementation roadmap, and 2050 Long-Term Strategy. 

  • Knowledge management and evidence generation:

Nepal will prepare to strongly position itself for negotiations in COP26 through knowledge management and evidence generation of different best practices, innovations, and lessons learned in the areas of nature-based solutions, energy transitions, adaptation and resilience, disaster risk management, and green recovery, etc. Nepal aims to demonstrate strong leadership on climate action, showcase innovation and successes, and highlight investment needs and priorities for climate action.

  • Messaging and Communication:

Nepal intends to take forward the mountain agenda to the center stage and represent key issues with a progressive voice in the LDC group and influence regional players to be more ambitious on climate action. Nepal also intends to communicate impacts and best practices, including bringing forward the voices of vulnerable communities and marginalized groups through audio, visual, and print media by engaging with journalists. With this, Nepal aims to ensure recognition for bilateral and multilateral partnerships to share the common positions and commitment to a highly ambitious outcome.

2. Enhancing partnerships and dialogues on leaving no one behind

Nepal intends to translate the ‘leaving-no-one-behind’ agenda into practice. Representation and engagement by all important stakeholders to raise their voices on climate agenda by youth, women, the private sector, indigenous communities, CSOs, local governments, parliamentarians, and political parties are important to enhance partnerships and dialogues.

Identifying champions for advocating challenges and opportunities in COP26 and engaging vulnerable and marginalized communities to raise and bring forth their issues through public discussions are top priorities of this roadmap.

Nepal will also engage at the regional level, especially with Hindu Kush Himalayan region, to take the mountain agenda forward.

  • Organize events: 

This includes celebrating various important theme days, highlighting climate agendas, and holding discussions, dialogues, conferences, panel discussions, and high-level events (bilateral and multilateral) regularly to showcase Nepal’s climate agenda.

  • Engaging and mobilizing with local and provincial governments: 

The sub-national engagement in the process should be taken into highest consideration to raise awareness and reflect the issues in COP26. In the aspiration of federalism, Nepal seeks to engage local and provincial governments to sensitize on climate change issues as well as to discuss integration and implementation of climate action at the sub-national level.

3. Defining and strengthening Nepal’s position for COP26 key thematic areas

The areas of work should be highlighted based on Nepal’s ambition of LDC graduation. Some of the proposed preliminary themes are: loss and damage; climate financing; adaptation; mitigation; means of implementation; and enhanced transparency framework. These themes will be agreed upon considering country priorities and consultations with experts.

  • Expert Thematic Groups:

Setting up expert thematic working groups to prepare and communicate Nepal’s position to all national and international stakeholders in a systematic manner. The groups will include experts in different themes who will organize thematic discussions to define Nepal’s position for COP26.

  • Preparatory positioning:

Organizing Sagarmatha Dialogue which is pending due to COVID-19 lockdown. This will help organize Nepal’s priority at the regional level and develop regional and international coalitions on agendas of mutual interest.

4. Ensuring strong representation in COP26 negotiation process

  • Effective negotiation and positioning:

The Government of Nepal intends to organize orientation and training sessions for delegates to ensure strong representation of Nepal in the negotiation processes at COP26.

  • High-level closed-door meetings: 

Nepal intends to hold high-level bilateral and multilateral meetings. Nepal seeks to engage with different ministries and development partners to prepare negotiation briefs and visibility materials for these high-level meetings.

Adopting a whole-of-government approach

In delivering high-impact messages in the areas of work identified under the key pillars of the roadmap to Nepal’s strategic engagement in COP26, the Ministry of Forests and Environment, Government of Nepal will invite national and international development partners to provide their institutional support and commitments on the list of suggestive actions based on this roadmap.

Furthermore, it has also planned a series of events that will accommodate the voices of community-based organizations, women, youths, and indigenous people so that the views of climate-vulnerable people are properly reflected in the country’s roadmap to COP26.

The aim is to showcase Nepal’s climate scenario at the COP26 and seek support in the areas of climate finance, capacity building, and climate-smart technologies so that Nepal could align its developmental efforts with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

 

The writer is Under Secretary (Technical) at the Ministry of Forests and Environment, Kathmandu, Nepal

Email: arun.bhatta@nepal.gov.np

Categories
Climate Adaptation, South Asia

Climate Adaptation and Resilience for South Asia project promotes integrated approaches

Photo by Sohel Pravez Haque/ Shutterstock.com

Divided by geographic boundaries, over 1.9 billion people living in South Asian countries share mountains, rivers, oceans, energy sources as well as weather and vulnerabilities associated with climate change. Therefore, cooperation across borders is critical to meeting the challenges unleashed by the vagaries of weather. 

The development gains in South Asia are already in peril due to the increasing frequency and intensity of floods, cold and heat waves, droughts, wind storms, and cyclones. Approximately 17.5 million people across South Asia have been affected by monsoon flooding in 2020 amid the COVID-19 health crisis.

The World Bank estimated that the region has lost US$127 billion in damages to 1,000 climate-induced disasters between 1990 and 2019.”Adaptation is the only effective option to manage the inevitable impacts of climate change that mitigation cannot reduce,” an analysis of South Asia specific findings from the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) by Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) argues. The IPCC describes adaptation as “the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects”.

South Asian countries have been making great strides in developing climate change policies, national adaptation plans, nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement, leveraging innovative solutions, and exploring climate financing. Bangladesh, for example, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), is spending US$1 billion per year for climate change adaptation, which is around 6-7% of its annual budget.

However, the adaptation finance gap, as well as the lack of coherent policies, robust institutional setup, and limited opportunities for exchanging regional data, are some of the key challenges South Asian countries face to becoming resilient to climate change. In addition, the region’s dependency on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water, natural resources, and environmental security requires regional collaboration to accelerate sector-specific adaptation to changing climate.

Given the geo-political situation of the region, an enabling environment needs to be created to foster cooperation and knowledge-sharing. A regional approach to reduce climate change impacts allows for a common baseline of data, information, and knowledge from which country-specific resilience and adaptation policies can be developed.

In response to these challenges, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) has initiated the implementation of a World Bank-funded project, “Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CARE) for South Asia”. The project will support regional collaboration, introduce innovative solutions, and foster the knowledge and technology required to scale up climate adaptation action, policies, and investments in agriculture, water resources management and road infrastructure.

Facilitating cooperation between South Asian countries is expected to reduce the transboundary impacts of climate change and to pool resources to meet common challenges.

The CARE for South Asia project aims to create an enabling environment for climate resilience by improving the availability of regional data and knowledge, developing guidelines, tools, and capacities, and promoting climate-resilient decisions, policies, and investments across key sectors.

The initiative is expected to improve the technical capacities of institutions in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan and provide support to policy and investment interventions, climate-risk management solutions, and national-level sectoral Decision Support Systems (DSS) for climate resilience.

The project recognizes the need for an effective adaptation planning across key sectors─ climate-smart agriculture, integrated water resources management, road infrastructure, and climate finance and planning including finance and planning for climate-informed macro-level analysis, modeling, and climate-informed fiscal risk management.

It will also help countries access international climate finance, including support accreditation processes for national/sub-national entities to access the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

In addition, the CARE for South Asia project will promote innovation and adoption of disruptive technology by awarding grants to eligible and qualifying innovators.

The five-year initiative is being jointly implemented by ADPC and the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia (RIMES) with support from the World Bank.

The writer is Communications Manager at ADPC.

Email: nusrat.rana@adpc.net