Although US President Donald Trump’s protectionist trade policies dominate news headlines, they are far from the only forces shaping global production. New investment patterns have been reshaping the global economic landscape since well before Trump’s tariffs. 
Nowhere is this more evident than in flows of foreign direct investment. According to the latest <a href="https://unctad.org/publication/world-investment-report-2025" target="_blank">World Investment Report</a> from United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD), FDI inflows to Europe, South America, and much of Asia declined in 2024. By contrast, FDI flows to Africa surged by 75%, to $97 billion, while those to Southeast Asia increased by 10%, to $225 billion. 
Behind these trends lies a broader restructuring of multinational supply chains, which are steadily shifting toward Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Central America. Consequently, FDI patterns are also changing: while the United States, Japan, and China remain the largest outward investors, the Middle East has emerged as a major source of FDI. 
Flush with oil revenue, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – invested <a href="https://studies.aljazeera.net/en/analyses/gccs-strategic-footprint-gulf-investment-emerging-power-bloc-africa" target="_blank">roughly $113 billion</a> in Africa in 2022 and 2023, dramatically expanding their economic footprint on the continent. Most of this capital has gone into logistics and infrastructure projects such as ports, airports, and transportation networks, as well as oil and gas.
The center of gravity, however, is rapidly shifting toward China, especially when it comes to green investment. A <a href="https://www.netzeropolicylab.com/china-green-leap" target="_blank">new report</a> from the Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab highlights the scope of Chinese outward FDI, showing how China’s push into clean energy is boosting its economic influence. 
Drawing on a database of 461 China-backed greentech manufacturing projects announced between 2011 and mid-2025, the report finds that Chinese firms have invested more than $220 billion in 387 projects across 54 countries since 2022. These include solar and wind power facilities, large-scale battery plants, new-energy vehicles, charging infrastructure, and even early-stage green-hydrogen startups. 
According to the report, Chinese investments are largely driven by firms’ search for market access and reliable supplies of raw materials. While ASEAN countries remain the leading destination for such projects, the Middle East and North Africa’s share rose sharply to over 20% in 2024; Latin America and Central Asia also attracted a significant share of Chinese FDI. 
Importantly, this wave of Chinese FDI is not led by state-owned enterprises but by private companies that have relied neither on large loans from state-owned banks nor on subsidies from host governments. As one of the study’s authors <a href="https://www.phenomenalworld.org/interviews/the-belt-and-road-2-0/" target="_blank">observed</a>, “Chinese government officials themselves may not be aware of the full range and aggregated total of these private-sector green investments overseas.” 
Taken together, these developments signal a new phase in China’s global economic expansion. Unlike President Xi Jinping’s state-led Belt and Road Initiative, profit-oriented investments reflect both supply-side pressures – such as industrial overcapacity within China – and demand-side dynamics, with recipient countries increasingly tying market access to value-added processing rather than natural-resource extraction.
Given that the full impact of these projects will become clear only years from now, many observers – particularly in advanced economies – could be caught off guard. While Chinese exports and extractive investments have often been viewed as threats to industrialization in recipient countries, the current wave of manufacturing FDI has the potential to strengthen domestic production, create jobs, and promote broader development goals. Even limited technology transfers could prove transformative, accelerating the clean-energy transition and reshaping global trade. 
To be sure, China is not in the business of philanthropy. FDI – whether from the West, China, or the Gulf – is profit-driven, and sometimes motivated by rent-seeking. It can deliver significant benefits, but it also carries risks: environmental degradation, displacement, labor exploitation, foreign-exchange losses through profit repatriation, and costly technical fees or royalties. And when expected linkages and spillovers fail to materialize, the benefits remain highly localized. 
As always, much depends on the policies adopted by host countries. Encouragingly, some export-oriented developing economies appear to have learned from Indonesia, where the government compelled Chinese firms to generate more domestic value-added production (particularly in nickel processing) as a condition for investment. 
Inspired by this, several governments are seeking to impose similar requirements on foreign investors, with greater emphasis on local production and knowledge transfer. For example, in <a href="https://www.china-briefing.com/news/china-brazil-economic-ties-trade-investment-and-opportunities/" target="_blank">Brazil</a>, the consumer-electronics company Lenovo has established a joint research and development department to enhance its local digital intelligent manufacturing capabilities. 
That said, even Indonesia’s relative success has not translated into higher real wages and better working conditions. Welcoming FDI is not enough; host countries also need stronger domestic regulation, public intervention, and regional cooperation to ensure that the gains are broadly shared. 
A similar demand was at the heart of the 1955 Bandung Conference, hosted by Indonesia, which called for a fairer global economic order and greater cooperation among Asian and African countries. Notably, the resolution is <a href="https://eng.yidaiyilu.gov.cn/p/0R9VRTB6.html" target="_blank">still cited</a> on Chinese government websites. 
But fulfilling the Bandung Conference’s call for a fairer international economic order requires more than profit-driven investment. It requires governments that are willing to work together to develop markets that serve societies, not just shareholders. © <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/">Project Syndicate</a>
Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is a member of the Club of Rome’s Transformational Economics Commission and Co-Chair of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation.

original

674x448

610x380

500x500

400x266

400x240

400x203

301x200

1250x600

1084x550

thumbnail

viewImage

The Changing Face of Foreign Direct Investment

Pump water, store energy

High tech firms are power hungry, and the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/those-who-stay">climate crisis</a> is driving them to seek <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/nepal-can-lead-in-zero-carbon">renewable sources of energy</a>. Nepal’s surplus electricity generation capacity coincides with this surge in global demand to power generative AI data centres. Data centres have become major drivers of electricity demand globally in the last two years, but the lack of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-electric-transport-future-is-here">clean energy</a> remains a major hurdle to expansion. Along with coverage area and number of racks, a key parameter to measure use of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/tech-and-transition-in-nepal">information technology </a>in each country is the amount of power they use1 for data centres. For example, the US currently uses 50MW of data centres per million people compared to just 1MW in India. In Nepal, investment in data centres have just begun. About 1.5% of global electricity is currently going to power data centres and data transmission. Improvements in IT hardware, efficient cooling methods, and gains from the shift to efficient cloud and hyperscale data centres have allowed growth in energy demand to remain small even as data centre services have grown significantly since 2010. After 2022 this picture has begun to break down due to the exponential growth in power requirements for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-in-the-decade-of-ai">AI </a>which far exceeds accompanying gains in energy efficiency.&nbsp; The growth of AI applications was made possible by breakthroughs in Deep Neural Network models and hardware to run them, enabling image recognition and generation, natural language processing and many other previously<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/it-is-all-about-it-in-nepal,3887"> ‘high-compute applications’</a> which required a lot of computational power. These advances laid the groundwork for large language models such as <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/chatgpt-news-about-nepal">GPT</a>-4o (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic), Gemini (Google), Llama-3 (Meta/Facebook), Grok (xAI) among others. The growth of large language models and generative AI has changed the role of data centres from managing content, data storage and data processing to training large AI models and running AI inference to serve user applications from those models. But training <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-bhasa-on-google-translate">AI models</a> is compute-intensive, and requires high-powered hardware. Similarly, AI inference, which involves using trained models to make predictions based on new data, also demands significant energy due to the large and increasing number of user applications served by AI models. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, growth in investment into generative AI is expected to push data-centre electricity use by 4-10 times from current levels by 2030. Companies such as Google and Microsoft are already consuming as much electricity as The Netherlands. Many of the largest companies have also made ‘net-zero’ commitments, to generate no net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which they are struggling to uphold due to this unexpected increase in energy demand to power data centres.Big tech is therefore sourcing power from all the clean energy sources they can find: wind, solar and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/missing-pieces-of-the-hydropower-jigsaw">hydropower</a>. They have even invested in nuclear power plants to power AI data centres. As demand rises, companies will be looking for new geographies with abundant clean energy. Could this new reality present an opportunity for Nepal to market its surplus clean energy from hydropower and solar? The country could promote itself as a destination for data centres, as Bhutan is doing with its Gelephu Mindfulness City. Nepal’s data infrastructure, even including NEA and Ncell Axiata data centres, is not well developed. &nbsp;The recently announced partnership between the Chaudhary Group’s BLC Holdings, and India’s Yotta Data Services to build Nepal’s first supercloud 4MW data centre in Ramkot could pave the way for private sector investment into data centres in Nepal.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250120140144_dae5f9c304943d4efb156a9930b0ca1894b2f6b915abeb6c30d510e0f246e4a5.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250120140144_dae5f9c304943d4efb156a9930b0ca1894b2f6b915abeb6c30d510e0f246e4a5" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1125" loading="lazy" alt="NEA"> <figcaption>Distribution System Control and Data Centre of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) in Siuchatar in Kathmandu. Photo: SONIA AWALE</figcaption> </figure>  Yotta already runs some of the largest hyperscale data centres in Mumbai and Delhi, and this investment could allow the company to be the provider of digital services in the Subcontinent’s high growth IT sector. To catch up with per capita IT services at the level of India, Nepal would need seven more Ramkot-sized data centres using about 30MW of power. With its readily available clean energy and proximity to large population centres in Northern India and Bangladesh, Nepal could in theory provide the compute infrastructure necessary to power the future AI training and inference services for local applications and markets.&nbsp; To provide IT services at the level that the US population currently consumes, Nepal would need 1,500MW of power just to power data centres for its own needs. While this is unlikely to happen anytime soon, Nepal could opportunistically provide data centre services for the upcoming AI needs of some of the 500 million people living in the Ganges basin. India is already a regional powerhouse in data centres and has about 1,600MW of capacity, and generative AI is estimated to push computational requirements with power needs expected to grow between 25-30% each year through to 2030. With the right investment climate, and the necessary investment into fibre optic infrastructure and IT parks, Nepal could leverage its plentiful power supply advantage to offer locations for a portion of this investment.&nbsp; This would provide a much needed boost to Nepal’s ongoing efforts to establish itself as a technology hub and provide jobs to the 15,000 IT professionals that are being trained in the country each year. Data centres are one part of a larger technology ecosystem. AI model training and maintenance require skilled expertise in every industry from finance, to train fraud detection models, to healthcare, to label X-ray and MRI images and test results and diagnostic data to build intelligent medical tools, and to the legal sector, to supervise generated contract documents. NTC’s recently installed XGPON network standard that can deliver up to 10 Gbps downstream speed and 2.5 Gbps upstream does provide the basic level of connectivity needed for AI applications, but it is only available in Kathmandu and needs to be expanded to other urban centres. Nepal’s investment climate for private companies remains far from ideal, and government regulations need to be relaxed to allow global companies and non-resident Nepalis to bring in investment to take full advantage of this new <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/business/digital-connectivity">digital infrastructure</a>. Amrit R Pant contributed with AI expertise while writing the article. Bikash Pandey is Director of Clean Energy and Circular Economy at Winrock International. People Power is his regular column in Nepali Times on global energy issues relevant to Nepal.

Bikash Pandey

Nepal as an AI power bank

Next week from 31 October-4 November is the festival of lights, and that is when domestic demand for electricity will surge as it does this time every year. &nbsp; However, this year the the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) will be hard pressed to ensure adequate supply because of the damage to power plants and transmission lines on 28 September. In a flash, Nepal lost nearly half its electricity generation capacity as a dozen power plants were knocked out. Most of them are now back in operation, but the 456MW Upper Tama Kosi was damaged in a massive rock fall, and will take at least six months to return to full operation. The export of over 1,000MW of power to India has been slashed to meet in-country demand over the festival. The flood was a warning that Nepal must not bunch up power plants on just one river basin. An Indian company is building a cascade of four plants on the Arun to cumulatively generate 3,000MW in the next five years -- half of Nepal's total. We should also not rely solely on hydro, but diversify to solar.&nbsp; But how can Nepal <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-s-cooking-in-nepal-besides-politics">increase domestic power consumption</a>? Even without catastrophic floods like the one last month, the math is simple: unless domestic power consumption is increased and the distribution system upgraded, Nepal is on track to ‘spill’ millions of units of electricity worth billions of rupees. &nbsp;&nbsp; “Domestic consumption of electricity is very much linked to GDP and economic growth,” says Chandan Kumar Ghosh of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). “Expansion of our network doesn’t necessarily mean increased consumption. What we are seeing right now is a worrying decline in electricity demand in rural areas due to outmigration.” Transportation has been seen as the low hanging fruit to increase domestic energy demand. The government’s tax rebates on battery-operated vehicles has increased <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/rev-your-car-and-charge-it-too">EV uptake</a>. In fact, among Asian countries, Nepal has the highest annual sale of EVs in proportion of total vehicles sold. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241025051052_38c0218c19cff744eb7da36c5d31b5d357e5d4c253766f35425c32557a95c8dc.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20241025051052_38c0218c19cff744eb7da36c5d31b5d357e5d4c253766f35425c32557a95c8dc" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1152" loading="lazy" alt="Power to the people NT"> <figcaption>Photo: CLEAN COOKING ALLIANCE(Photo: Shristi Karki)</figcaption> </figure>  However, the same subsidies and incentives to electrical appliances would have a bigger impact on electricity consumption. Only 3% of Nepali households own &nbsp;cars, jeeps, and vans but nearly all households cook three meals a day. The government did provide subsidies for induction stoves, but cultural factors because of the shape of cooking pots, lack of maintenance backup, and insufficient amperes in the current means there were few buyers.&nbsp; “Use of electrical and electronic appliances in Nepali households was very low even by South Asian standards until 2010, but it increased due to awareness, accessibility and availability of electricity,” says Prabhakar Shumsher Thapa of Golchha Group which sells the Himstar brand. He adds: “But the market is becoming more challenging mainly because a large portion of young Nepali consumers have migrated.” Sales figures show that demand for tvs, refrigerators and washing machines are still growing, while rice cookers are best sellers.&nbsp; Air conditioners in the Tarai and heaters in the mountains also have seasonal sales peaks. Chilling stations which use up significant energy have become a lifeline for farmers across the country to keep produce from going to waste. “Induction stoves are popular but it is culturally more challenging, so many choose the infrared option which takes utensils of various make or rice cookers which are always high on demand,” explains Sefali Agrawal of the Triveni Group which has its own local brand Yasuda. The NEA’s Ghosh, speaking as the energy supplier, is not so keen on increasing domestic consumption of electricity with cooking appliances because of peaking demand. Nepal’s existing transmission lines cannot handle a morning and evening spike. The higher investment on distribution may not be justified if there is low demand the rest of the day.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024102412100_0ae89b3197601d868b829b9f346c35d67f14e21e4430696da7c81ea8f75cb2fb.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="2024102412100_0ae89b3197601d868b829b9f346c35d67f14e21e4430696da7c81ea8f75cb2fb" data-rendition-name="original" width="1247" height="639" loading="lazy" alt="Power to the people NT"> </figure>  “The solution is balancing out such peaks with electrification of industries and the IT sector,” Ghosh says. “And what would really help is day-ahead forecasts with a binding agreement of how much power the industries would need so that we can also provide quality supply. This helps when we import power from India during winter at a very high rate, so we won’t buy what we don’t need and waste money.” Captains of industry, however, say the government needs to have a pro-manufacturing policy in place to encourage local production of household appliances by reducing taxes on imported raw materials and even subsidies. That way Made in Nepal appliances can be competitive, and even exported. However, Thapa of Golchha Group adds that while certain goods that are manufactured in Nepal are eligible for preferential treatment under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement, not all countries reciprocate.&nbsp; India has non-tariff barriers on appliance imports that have to meet its energy efficiency ratings and the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification which protect its own manufacturing industry.&nbsp; “The solution to increasing the domestic electricity consumption is by making larger customers pay less per unit,” says Thapa.&nbsp; Experts say that electricity tariffs should be as low as possible for consumers because Nepal risks wasting hydropower during monsoon. They recommend unbundling the NEA into a regulatory body and an operator, and deregulating the market.&nbsp; Other measures can be time-of-day metering as well as reverse metering so households and industries with solar arrays can export power to the grid. And the warning from the floods last month was that Nepal should not have all its eggs in the hydropower basket, and look into utility-scale solar generation sites combined with pumped storage hydropower so that solar energy can be stored for evening and morning peak demand without using expensive batteries. <h2>EV envy</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241025051052_733c35d24c389cb21570642d03f3a49eb08625b6592193cffc5202887e45f3d0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20241025051052_733c35d24c389cb21570642d03f3a49eb08625b6592193cffc5202887e45f3d0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Power to the people NT"> <figcaption>Photo: SUMAN NEPALI(Photo: suman)</figcaption> </figure>  The sales of<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/evs-hybrids-and-plug-ins"> electric vehicles in Nepal</a> continue to rise, with the number of battery-powered cars, buses, vans, and tempos now totalling more than 50,000. Ten months into this year, nearly 80% of all private vehicles sold across the country are electric, the highest proportion among Asian countries. Nearly 12,000 EVs were imported between June 2023 and June of this year, with Chinese EVs such as best-seller BYD now having overtaken Indian models. This is despite fluctuating tax policies, which are generally more favourable than those of their petrol and diesel counterparts.&nbsp; Smaller EVs are also well suited for Kathmandu, while the improved range of new e-SUVs and e-vans means they can travel from Kathmandu to Dharan or Pokhara on a single charge. There is, however, still a gap in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/sajha-s-green-buses-go-greener">electric buses</a> that are five times as expensive as fossil variants of the same capacity, but do not get any subsidy or tax rebate. The real transformation in transport in Nepal will come when batery-powered buses get the same incentives. There are over 1.2 million motorcycles and scooters just in Kathmandu. Replacing them with electric two-wheelers will open a bigger market while also cleaning up the air and improving public health. However, petrol two-wheeler sales have fallen by 30% in the past year, according to retailers. There is a direct corelation between increased EV sales and Nepal's import of petrol and diesel from India which was down by 10% in July-August compared to the same months in 2023, although tight credit and an economic slump were also factors. Reducing petroleum imports by just 10% and replacing it with domestically generated hydroelectricity would save Nepal at least Rs30 billion a year, while contributing to the need to increase domestic demand for power.

Sonia Awale

Power to the People

What’s cooking in Nepal besides politics?

Nepali hydropower industry is poised to play a bigger role in Nepal’s energy transition to meet its 2045 net zero target. Nepal Hydropower Association (NHA) last month hosted a ‘Made in Nepal’ booth at the Hydro23 conference in Edinburgh which was attended by 1,000 delegates from 70 countries. There were over 30 delegates from Nepal. The Nepal booth showcased and promoted Nepali hydropower expertise, experience and its ability to offer a diverse range of services across the whole hydropower value chain in emerging markets for projects up to 100MW. This was a show of Nepal’s new confidence in the experience its technicians and engineers have gained in the past decades. With its natural geographical advantage, Nepal actually has over 100 years of experience in hydro-electricity, with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-1st-hydroelectric-plant-is-a-museum-piece">Pharping being only the second hydropower plant in Asia</a> when it was built in 1911. In his new book What Went Right: Sustainability versus Dependence in Nepal's Hydropower Development, US professor Mark Liechty explains why Nepal’s hydropower sector has been such a success among the many development models that Nepal’s donors experimented with over the last seven decades. Liechty traces the history of indigenous capacity in Nepal’s hydropower with capital financing, tender bid process, EIA, engineering consulting, construction, generation, maintenance, transmission to distribution. Nepalis also gained experience in project management and delivery along with increased sophistication of the local high precision machining and tunnelling expertise in the challenging Himalayan geology and climate. Nepal’s Ambassador to the UK Gyan Chandra Acharya said: “Nepal’s hydro industry has a unique position and readiness to contribute to reducing greenhouse gas in South Asia and beyond. This global interaction can only be mutually beneficial.” There are now 130 hydroelectric plants in Nepal delivering nearly 3,000MW, with another 240 plants under construction. Such an experience and a steep learning curve in a short development period has meant that the sector has proven that it can build hydro projects at speed and at a competitive price globally. Evidence of this is the trend towards Chinese contractors outsourcing some of their hydro engineering design work to Nepali engineering consultancies. The output and competitive consulting fees proves that Nepal’s engineering design is ready to do business globally. Nepal’s Energy Secretary Dinesh Ghimire told the Edinburgh gathering: “Made in Nepal can be a platform to share Nepal’s successes and tell the world that we are ready to do business by selling its hydropower building expertise.” Hydro Consult Engineering, a company with 30 years experience in Nepal promoted its services and capabilities in Edinburgh. It has completed projects in Pakistan, and two small new plants are in the pipeline in Kenya and Uganda. Hydro’s CEO Manohar Shrestha said: “We are excited with our international projects. They are challenging, but we are confident that these projects are a growth and learning opportunities for us.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231106141148_586f173e596cfd0fd49f3822431958a9fea0fe59293a3fa431b1d357e452e27a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20231106141148_586f173e596cfd0fd49f3822431958a9fea0fe59293a3fa431b1d357e452e27a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="1066" loading="lazy" alt="Hydro 2023"> <figcaption>Nepal Hydropower Association at Hydro23 conference in Edinburgh.</figcaption> </figure>  Conference organiser Alison Bartle publisher of the journal Hydropower and Dams said that the world is becoming aware of Nepal’s speed of advancement within the sector despite its geological and geopolitical challenges. “Nepal is fast becoming a hydro hub in the region,” she added. “We are especially happy that Nepal is cultivating cross border partnerships and exploring electricity trade with India and Bangladesh. It is a game changer.” Delegates said the next steps were for NHA and the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation to support the industry’s growth, and project Nepal was a model for successful energy transition at climate summits including at the COP 28 in Dubai this month.

Nepal's hydropower goes international

Last week, a report on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/cleaner-air-longer-lives">Air Quality Life Index</a> (AQLI) issued by the Energy Policy Institute of the University of Chicago revealed the shocking fact that particulate pollution in the air is reducing life expectancy by up to 4 years in Kathmandu Valley and 6.5 years in the Tarai.
But more shocking than that is the lack of political will to reduce air pollution. Politicians who do not act on increasing their own life spans cannot be expected to tackle Nepal’s other development problems.
Air quality in Kathmandu this week is the healthiest it will be this year before the onset of winter when thick toxic pollution makes the air unbreathable. This is the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/epicentre-of-pollution">biggest public health crisis of our times</a>, killing more people than smoking, alcohol, diabetes, malaria, road traffic accidents, natural disasters and other causes.&nbsp;
The main domestic polluters are well known: vehicular emissions, garbage burning and soot particles from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/why-is-the-air-in-bhaktapur-so-bad">brick kilns</a>. Trans-border pollution from India contributes to the bad air, especially along the Tarai.&nbsp;
This week the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) issued a report directly linking climate change-induced heat waves to wildfires which in turn increased air pollution risk around the world. Wildfires and crop residue burning in India have been blamed for most of the pollution between November-April in northern India and Nepal.
Dirty air has become severe enough to be a factor in the outmigration of young Nepalis who seem to be literally fleeing for their lives.
We know what the problem is, we have the solutions. What <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/polluted-politics">we do not have is the political will </a>to implement them.
Electrification of urban public transport and two-wheelers will clean the air, it will reduce Nepal’s trade deficit since petroleum makes up 23% of Nepal’s imports, higher than all exports combined. Reducing diesel use by just 10% will save the country Rs30 billion a year. This means <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/balance-of-power">investing in transmission lines on a war footing</a> to ease distribution of surplus electricity.&nbsp;
At the Nepal International EV Expo in Kathmandu last week, private sector investors, researchers and energy planners discussed how best to promote electric vehicles in Nepal. There was a resounding conclusion: focus first on the two-wheeler market.
Motorcycles and scooters make up 79% of all registered vehicles in Nepal. Kathmandu Valley alone has over 1.2 million of them. In contrast, local distributors imported only 1,500 battery-operated two-wheelers last year and better financing options would increase sales of battery-operated scooters.
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-journey-to-electric-public-transport">Electric city buses</a> would not just reduce diesel imports, but also improve air quality with their zero emission and by displacing private vehicles. But battery-powered buses are 5 times more expensive and need government subsidy.
Nepal’s new Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) Implementation Plan has provisions to promote clean energy, including allocating 25% of the pollution tax to expand electric vehicles in Nepal.
At local levels, wards and municipalities must get to work immediately to discourage <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/no-smoke-without-fire-in-kathmandu">open burning</a> before winter sets in. Public awareness, strict punitive measures, and better solid waste management have to all go together.
Lalitpur has already taken the step to allow residents to formally file a complaint of neighbours and institutions <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/kathmandus-toxic-trash">burning garbage</a> via its app LMC City Police. The sub-metropolis has also set up an Environmental Police Unit with a hotline.
Likewise, Kirtipur and Chandragiri are strictly enforcing vehicle emission tests in their jurisdictions to control air pollution. Indeed, if breath analyser tests can reduce drunk-driving cases by 80% in Kathmandu, why can vehicle emission checks not be enforced? &nbsp;
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/dang-turns-dung-into-energy">Ghorahi municipality in Dang has started to turn trash</a> including kitchen waste, farm residue and livestock dung into methane gas for cooking. They also reuse and recycle what they can and only a small portion is disposed of at a landfill site. This reduces LPG use and open garbage burning, improving air quality.
These local governments are leaps and bounds ahead of Kathmandu Metropolitan City where Mayor Balen Shah is more busy uploading incendiary posts on social media than fulfilling his electoral promise of reducing air pollution and garbage.&nbsp;
We cannot wait for winter to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/kathmandu-air-pollution-hits-record-high">set another record for the worst air quality</a>, or for Kathmandu’s hospitals to be overwhelmed by patients with pneumonia, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases.
Proactive action by local and federal governments can reduce air pollution. Other cities have done it, we can too. If politicians wait too long, they may not be alive to solve the problem.
Sonia Awale

Cleaner air, longer lives

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2023020814028/63e39f2d9c7e80680e0d6fdfjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="900"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>In Nepal, the new year coincides with a newly elected federal Parliament being installed. And as the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/new-year-challenge-to-new-government/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new government</a> takes shape, there is a lot at stake.Besides improving governance and service delivery, one of the most urgent tasks is to manage Nepal’s energy policy in 2023 and beyond.Nepal must do this not just to meet its own pledges under the Nationally Determined Commitment to decarbonise that it made to the international community, but to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/global-crisis-local-solutions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">save its economy from collapse</a> and to protect public health.The rate at which Nepal’s petroleum import is growing is economically unsustainable. It is now 20% of total imports, and more than all its exports combined. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/warning-breathing-is-hazardous-to-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Burning fossil fuels</a> is also endangering the lives of Nepalis, reducing the average lifespan of city-dwellers by up to 4 years.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/can-nepal-go-from-hydro-to-hydrogen/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Can Nepal go from hydro to hydrogen?</a>, Kunda DixitThe <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/oli-dahal-political-deja-vu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new coalition government</a> has very little excuse for not accelerating the country’s energy transition from petroleum to renewables. Nepal has all the resources, sufficient budget, and a vast array of clean energy possibilities with multi-dimensional benefits.The energy crisis must be placed front and centre in the new government’s agenda because it has implications on so many fronts, including making Nepal more politically dependent on India.Among the alternatives, Nepal’s vast hydroelectric resources can be used to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/potholes-in-the-highway-to-nepals-ev-future/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">power public transport</a>, domestic cooking, and industries. There are greater value-added benefits if Nepalis can use domestically-produced hydroelectricity rather than exporting it for cheap to India.Every Nepali high school student’s social studies textbook has an entire chapter devoted to the country's hydropower potential from its perennial rivers, and it is presented as the resource that will safeguard the country’s future.Ironically, it is climate-induced disasters like as <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-climate-crisis-is-a-water-crisis-in-the-himalaya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">glacial lake outburst floods</a> and high runoff that can destroy the very hydropower plants that we need as an alternative to greenhouse gases. We have seen the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/climate-smarter-himalayan-infrastructure/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">destructive debris flows on the Melamchi </a>and Dordi Khola. Risk assessment prior to construction should now be mandatory for all riverine projects.Even though a switch to renewables is important to save the economy, nearly 70% of Nepalis still depend on biomass for domestic energy — firewood, dried dung and other farm residue. This comes with the dangers of indoor pollution, which means alternatives like <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/more-bullshit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">bio-CNG</a> hold much promise.Besides helping energy self-sufficiency, expanding <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/this-is-bullshit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">bio-CNG and biogas production</a> in all seven provinces can generate side jobs for farmers, help in waste management, and produce organic fertiliser to reduce dependence on imported chemical fertilisers.Another much-delayed policy measure is Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA)'s plan to install net metering for <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/an-energy-windfall-for-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">solar power generation</a> which will allow households to feed surplus energy into the national grid, and get paid for it. Not only would this ensure energy security, it would also be an incentive for businesses to switch to clean energy. We have no idea why such a win-win policy has not been implemented yet.It is not that Nepal is moving in the wrong direction with its energy sector. There is increased awareness about the benefits of clean energy and the public, already coping with record high fuel prices, wants alternatives. But the pace at which Nepal is moving is so slow that petroleum imports are growing faster than ever.The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/ukraine-climate-and-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">war in Ukraine</a> has shown the world that a self-sufficient energy sector is the best thing a country can have at times of geopolitical turmoil. As far back as April 2022, the European Council had already realised the impact of a stoppage of Russian gas supply to Europe.The EU announced economic sanctions on Russia and its oligarchs, but imports of gas continued. A quarter of Europe’s gas imports were from Russia, and it needed time to switch to alternative supply sources.Much of the EU's dependency on Russian gas is fuelled by countries like Germany, Italy, France, and Spain. And Germany imported more than half of its gas from Russia before Putin’s war. Today, despite pressure to stop imports, it still imports a quarter of its gas from Russia.What has happened in Europe in the past year has been replicated across the world, including in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/ukraine-crisis-hits-nepal-economy-hard/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal with inflated fuel prices</a>. This shock is the right opportunity to spur policy decisions to accelerate the switch to renewable energy.Depending on fuel from abroad means that a country's economy is, to some extent, in the hands of the exporter. The exporter can choose how and when to pressurise and increase prices, as we have seen Russia doing this past year, or with <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/autopsy-of-a-blockade%20,2863" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">India’s Blockade of Nepal in 2015</a>.But it also means that fossil fuel exporting countries should now start planning for peak oil, and declining petroleum demand worldwide, as Europe is already seeing.Sooner or later, things will change around the world. But for Nepal, there is no sooner or later. Things must change now.

Nepal’s energy policy in 2023 and beyond

One year after <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/copout-at-cop26/" target="_blank">meeting in Glasgow</a>, world governments are meeting again in Sharm El-Sheikh next week to decide on urgent measures to avert a global climate catastrophe. A lot has happened in that one year. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/it-is-getting-hotter-on-the-roof-of-the-world/" target="_blank">Record heat waves</a> have baked North America, Europe, South Asia and China. Wildfires have raged across the tundra, there have been unprecedented floods in Pakistan, storms have ravaged coastlines. Weather extremes that scientists had said would happen in the 2040s are already taking place. The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh is happening even as smoke from <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-transboundary-haze-affects-nepal/" target="_blank">crop residue burning</a> shrouds north India and blows up towards Himalayan glaciers, accelerating their melt. Nepal saw unseasonal post-monsoon rains that killed as many as 100 people in landslides and debris flows. There have been a slew of scientific reports in the run-up to COP27, each more alarmist than others. Despite climate denialism, there is no question that we are already in a climate emergency. It is too late to start thinking about what to do, it is time to cut emissions to limit average global temperatures to within 1.5C above pre-industrial levels by 2050.&nbsp; This week’s <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2022" target="_blank">Emissions Gap Report 2022</a> by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) calls itself ‘a testimony to inadequate action on the global climate crisis’ and calls for a credible pathway to 1.5°C which would require annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to be reduced by 45% in the next eight years, and continue to decline rapidly after that. In the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/" target="_blank">Sixth Assessment Report</a> scientists have even more apocalyptic predictions. Even if the 1.5C cap is reached between 2041-2100, up to 14% of terrestrial species in nature will likely face a very high risk of extinction. If the increase is 3C then 29% of species will be gone, and half of all plant and animal species will be extinct if greenhouse gases continue to be pumped into the atmosphere at the present rate, and global average temperatures rise by 5°C. The IPCC warns of widespread impacts to ecosystems, people, settlements, and infrastructure from increases in the frequency and intensity of weather extremes. The worrying thing is that this is not a prediction – it is already happening. In its chapter on the world’s mountain regions, the IPCC says there will be accelerated glacial retreat, increased permafrost thaw, and an increase in the number and size of glacial lakes. Plants and pathogens will move to higher elevations. The Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau is the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-third-pole-is-warming-faster-than-expected/" target="_blank">biggest storehouse of frozen water</a> aside from the two polar regions, and up to 1.2 billion people downstream in Asia depend on rivers that originate there. The IPCC says disruptions in the water cycle will affect agriculture, and increase landslide and floods hazards. Whatever Nepal burns or does not burn and how much is not going to make much a different to the planet. But it will determine Nepal’s economic survival. It is imperative that Nepal’s new government after the November elections take resolute steps to reduce petroleum imports top reduce the country’s trade deficit, and to lessen <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/warning-breathing-is-hazardous-to-health/" target="_blank">air pollution</a>. <div class="embed-block"><img width="1500" height="1125" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710124/6390579e9c7e80680e0ce166jpeg.jpg" alt="">HAZY FUTURE: Trans-border fog from industrial emissions and crop residue burning combined with Kathmandu Valley's own pollution blanket central Nepal, as seen in this aerial photo taken in November 2021. Himalayan glaciers, already melting because of climate change, thaw faster because of soot particles deposited on them. Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</div> This month’s COP27 UN Climate Summit in Egypt will be immediately followed in Nepal by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/many-nepalis-say-no-not-again/" target="_blank">federal and provincial elections</a> on 20 November. The election manifestos of the political parties once more make grandiose promises, but a shift to renewable energy is not the main priority. Reducing fossil fuel use is a not an election slogan for any of them. Even so, environmentalists and energy experts say the polls are an opportunity to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/happy-new-air/" target="_blank">elect leaders who make genuine and realistic pledges</a> to switch to renewables, protecting public health by reducing air pollution, and managing solid waste. “Our stance on the climate crisis has been limited to making lofty commitments at an international platform, back home there is not much to show implementation-wise,” says climate activist Shilshila Acharya of the Avni Center for Sustainability in Kathmandu. She adds: “For climate to take a front seat in our politics, we need leaders who have understood and internalised the importance of slow-moving disasters. But they are only looking at personal gain. It is up to us citizens to vote for candidates who will implement solutions.” Indeed, while the climate crisis is global, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/good-cop-bad-cop/" target="_blank">the solutions are local</a>. Nepal’s transition to electric mass transport and household electrification to replace LPG are two low-hanging fruits for which Nepal does not need international funding. To be sure the Nepali Congress (NC) has committed to increasing the use of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-electric-transport-future-is-here/" target="_blank">electric vehicles</a> to 50% in the next five years. Prime Minister Deuba had promised at COP26 in Glasgow last year to make Nepal carbon neutral by 2045, but that is not going to happen with current policies. Switching just 10% of vehicles in Nepal to battery-power would save at least Rs21 billion a year in petroleum imports. It is clear that reducing <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/blueprint-for-a-net-zero-nepal/" target="_blank">Nepal’s carbon footprint</a> is necessary to reduce the country’s trade deficit, and the climate contribution is a bonus. <div class="embed-block"><img width="1291" height="781" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710124/639057a29c7e80680e0ce167jpeg.jpg" alt=""></div> Nepal has seen substantial growth in the sales of electric vehicles (EVs) despite a ban on luxury cars. In the last three months alone, 705 new EV units were sold -- a five-fold increase compared to the same period last year. But most of these were private vehicles. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-goes-electric-but-conditions-apply/" target="_blank">Electric public buses</a> still costs three times more than similar sized diesel ones, and do not enjoy the tax rebates given to private electric cars and two-wheelers. This is in direct contrast with a stated government policy to make a quarter of all private vehicles and 20% of buses in the country electric by 2025. “Electric mass transport is the solution to our problem, it will clean up the air, reduce carbon emission and use up surplus electricity,” states Bhushan Tuladhar of Sajha Yatayat which is has already rolled out three of its 40 electric buses. But there are headwinds. Because <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/potholes-in-the-highway-to-nepals-ev-future/" target="_blank">electric buses</a> are initially so expensive, financing and tax rebates are needed. Charging infrastructure is also critical. Tuladhar adds: “We just need to translate our commitments into concrete action.” For every litre of petrol or diesel sold in Nepal, the government has been collecting Rs1.5 pollution tax since 2008. The accumulated to nearly Rs10 billion could be used to subsidise electric vehicles and clean energy. Similarly, an <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/kathmandu-bhaktapur-trolley-bus/" target="_blank">electric trolley bus depot</a> in Tikune rotting away with old vehicles could have easily been a charging station for Sajha’s new electric buses. On paper, Nepal has some forward-looking policies, some of the best in the world. The 2019 National Climate Change Policy, the 2022 Solid Waste Management Policy, the 2022 Forest Regulation, and the 2022 Land Use Regulation all address the country’s need to adapt to the impacts of climate change. <div class="embed-block"><img width="1000" height="1500" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710124/639057a69c7e80680e0ce168jpeg.jpg" alt="">Photo: AJAY NARSINGH RANA</div> However, as the World Bank notes in its recent <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/nepal/brief/key-highlights-country-climate-and-development-report-for-nepal" target="_blank">Country Climate and Development Report</a> for Nepal: ‘Implementation of this reform agenda and prioritization of investments is incipient. Moreover, enhanced prioritization and efficiency of public expenditure are required to maximize climate and development benefits,’ Nepal’s average temperature is expected to increase by 0.9°C between 2016 and 2045 under a medium-range emissions pathway. This means winters could be drier and monsoons wetter, with up to a threefold increase in rainfall. In fact, this is <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/here-today-gone-tomorrow/" target="_blank">already happening across the Himalaya</a>. It is also a warning that floods, fires, avalanches, droughts will be more severe. The World Bank report forecasts that the number of people in Nepal annually affected by flooding could double to 350,000 in the next eight years. Nepal’s economy is also expected to shrink by 7% due to climate impact. “All of our targets for emission reduction hinge on proactive implementation locally. We could have committed to net zero in the next five years if we were really serious about it, why wait till 2045?” asks environmentalist Acharya. “At this rate with our business as usual attitude, we are unlikely to be carbon neutral even if we had committed to 2060.” This year’s climate conference at Sharm El-Sheikh has been dubbed the 'implementation COP'. One of the priorities at the discussion this year would be designing a mitigation program given that the combined climate pledges of 194 Parties under the Paris Agreement could put the world on track for at most around 2.4°C of warming by 2100, far from limiting it to 1.5°C and prevent further <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/north-indian-heat-wave-hits-nepal/" target="_blank">catastrophic consequences</a>. Other priorities for Nepal at this conference include lobbying for the G20 nations to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/climate-smarter-himalayan-infrastructure/" target="_blank">loss and damage fund</a> as well as adaptation support, says Manjeet Dhakal, adviser to the Least Developed Countries (LDC) support group at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).&nbsp; “With the Ukraine crisis and the pandemic there is reluctance to climate funding, it is even more clear we cannot wait for the international community and must do our bit to adapt immediately and save lives as well as prepare for slow-moving disasters,” Dhakal told Nepali Timeson the phone from Sharm El-Sheikh. “We are nowhere near achieving our targets but for the first time we are now beginning to see a reduction in emission, however small that might be and that makes all these lobbying and climate conferences worth it,” he added. Global lobbying at the international climate platform is crucial for a country as vulnerable to the climate crisis as Nepal. But implementation has to be local. It is once the delegates are back the real work begins. Reducing <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dirty-snow-defrosts-nepals-mountains/" target="_blank">Nepal’s notorious urban pollution</a> this winter could be a start. Says Bhushan Tuladhar: “If Kathmandu’s mayor wanted to, he can mobilise his people and at the very least stop open garbage burning this winter through awareness campaigns and proper waste collection services. The only thing missing is the political will.”

Global crisis, local solutions

<figure><img width="3214" height="2143" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101140/63720d1b9c7e80680e0b78a8jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: AMIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure>The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepalis-flee-ukraine-as-russians-advance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Russian invasion of Ukraine</a> two weeks ago has been called ‘a war over fossil fuel’ because it has exposed Europe’s dependence on fossil fuel imports. But it has also underlined the urgency of switching to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/nepal-can-lead-in-zero-carbon/">renewable energy</a> to mitigate global climate breakdown.The war has driven global inflation, food prices have soared, gas is ten times more expensive in Europe. In Nepal, the price of diesel and petrol are at record highs, petroleum imports have increased so drastically that the government may reintroduce the odd-even rule imposed during the pandemic.The Russo-Ukraine war is pushing countries to abandon carbon emission targets to limit global warming to 1.5° Celsius in the next 30 years. Worldwide, carbon emissions have rebounded after the pandemic by 6% in 2021 to 36.3 gigatonnes, the biggest year-on-year increase in human history, according to the <a href="https://www.iea.org/">International Energy Agency (IEA)</a>.“The window of opportunity to slash emissions - by, in part, switching to those low carbon and renewable energy sources - is closing very rapidly,” Ukranian climate scientist <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-60592587">Svitlana Krakovska told the BBC</a> recently. “This war makes the window of opportunity even more narrow, because now we have to solve this problem first." <figure><img width="2492" height="926" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101140/63720d1e9c7e80680e0b78a9jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>However, the conflict could also spur countries like Germany and Italy that most depend on Russian gas to expedite the switch to cleaner energy. The European Commission this week committed to reducing its gas dependency on Russia by two-thirds this year, and to end it entirely by 2030. However, it will still need to increase imports from alternative suppliers like the US and Qatar.   Experts say Nepal should also use this opportunity to start phasing out fossil fuels, not just to meet its own <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/copout-at-cop26/">net-zero commitment at the Glasgow COP26</a> last year, but to salvage its economy. Nepal spent Rs180 million just in the past six months on petroleum imports, and this will increase.“We ought to have learned our lessons after the 2015 Indian Blockade, if we had reduced dependence on petroleum by now this crisis would have been less damaging to us,” says Manjeet Dhakal who is also the Head of LDC Support Team at Climate Analytics. “But it is not too late, we can still turn things around by switching rapidly to Nepal’s abundant hydropower.”This can be done by prioritising electrification of transport and cooking. The tax rebate for private electric vehicles should include battery-powered buses. At present an electric bus is five times more expensive than a diesel one of the same capacity. There are now 1.5 million petrol-burning two wheelers in Nepal, even though battery-powered ones are available.  <img width="881" height="537" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114101140/63720d209c7e80680e0b78aajpeg.jpg" alt=""><a href="https://www.aepc.gov.np/">The Alternative Energy Promotion Centre</a> (APEC) plans to give away induction stoves, but this must be expanded into a nationwide campaign to reduce LPG use.“The Ukraine crisis is likely to sideline our climate goals for the next few years,” fears Dhakal. “Europe should be using this as an opportunity and set an example to the rest of the world by rapidly transitioning to renewables and cleaner fuels.”Coincidentally, the<a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/2022/02/28/pr-wgii-ar6/"> latest report</a> by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 28 February warned that climate adaptation measures are too slow and small to meet 2050 targets."Peace is a prerequisite for any global collaboration, and especially for something as urgent and huge as the global climate crisis," says Nepali climate activist Shilshila Acharya of the Avni Center for Sustainability.Unlike volatile fossil fuel prices, the cost of solar panels, storage batteries and wind turbines are coming down. While international crude oil prices hit a record $127 per barrel this week due to the Ukraine crisis, the cost of renewable energy remained the same.Reactive policies and ad-hoc regulations will not be sustainable in the long run for Nepal to achieve its climate goals. Measures like the odd-even rule for vehicles are like band-aids.Says Shilshila Acharya: “The government should place citizens at the centre of policy-making, their health and well-being comes before revenue or industries. Only then can we tide over the present crisis, and make progress on climate.”Read Also<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-greenwashing-in-glasgow/">Nepal's greenwashing in Glasgow</a>, Rasmi Baskota<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/ukraines-lessons-for-sandwiched-nations-like-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ukraine's lessons for sandwiched nations like Nepal</a>, Bhaskar Koirala

Ukraine, Climate, and Nepal

In the very first page of the first chapter of Nepal 2043: The Road to Prosperity are two maps. The first places Nepal right at the epicentre of Asia, and in the second the Kathmandu is at exactly the midpoint between Mumbai and Beijing. With his trademark optimism, author Sujeev Shakya says Nepal is not land-locked but land-linked to three billion people in China and India. We just need those two economic engines to pull us in the same direction. ‘With China and India becoming the two largest economies in the world in the next two decades … Nepal is the most valuable piece of real estate in the world,’ Shakya writes. For one thing, Nepal does not look beyond India and China for tourism — with the right policies it can attract millions of tourists just from those two countries. Nepal is set to graduate from a low- to a middle-income country by 2026 and to a high-income country in 2043 — hence the name of the book. The year 2043 in the Bikram Sambat calendar is also 2100 — a new Nepali century. The book delves into the past, present and future of Nepal and analyses enablers including hydropower, a fundamental transformation of which will drive the 2043 goal. The commoditisation of electricity will be the biggest transformation. Nepal can deploy ‘Cyber Gurkhas’ to attract foreign investors with the management of data centres with climate friendly renewable energy. Access to technology such as precision agriculture, a data-driven approach to farming to improve food production, reduce environmental impact and enhance profitability could be Nepal’s strategy into 2043 and beyond. ‘Earlier, we needed ploughs and strong hands in agriculture. Now, you need a computer and strong fingers,” Shakya writes, citing a neighbour’s son who inspects his crops from drone cameras. A farmer in an Ilam teashop tells the author he asks AI questions in Nepali, and it answers promptly. The biggest enabler of all is Nepal’s young demography with 62% of the population in the active 15-60 age bracket, while 28% are younger than 14. Nepal’s dependency ratio has dropped to the lowest in history with 100 Nepalis having to support 62 dependents. But this demographic dividend window is closing. Nepal’s total fertility rate declined from 2.62% in 1981 to 0.92% in 2021 — below replacement level. We have less than 30 years left to make the best use of the youth, many of whom are currently studying and working abroad. Nepal’s biggest resource, therefore, is its diaspora spread across the world who send home $20 billion a year. Migration is not just a necessity but an aspiration for many Nepalis, and they are an important source of contacts, investment and soft power. This young and educated group has taken advantage of connectivity and digitisation in all arenas of national life. TikTok and Instagram have become e-commerce platforms, or mobile app-riven digital services. Nepal’s software companies exported over $1 billion worth of IT products last year. Next we need a change in the bureaucratic mindset to eliminate paper and manual processes, which would also contribute to reducing corruption. Shakya comes up with many revelations: 81% of Nepalis live in houses they own, much higher than most other South Asian countries which means higher disposable income. Nepal has the highest tax-to-GDP ratio in South Asia. The banking sector is twice the size of Bangladesh despite Nepal having just one-fifth of its population. In 2021, 12.62% of the population had demat accounts in Nepal, while India had only 5.32%. For every five male investors, there are four women in Nepal while it is 10:1 in India. With such figures and prospects, how come Nepal just went through a violent uprising that took the shortest time to topple a democratically-elected government in modern history? One early chapter of 2043 is actually dedicated to how Nepalis have always thrived on chaos. When people faced up to 20 hours of power cuts a day, people worked around the load-shedding schedule, woke up at ungodly hours to cook and stock up on inverters. They did not put up a fight, or even protest. ''Generally, Nepalis are used to taking things lying down, and perhaps this also needs to change,' says Shakya, writing that line before last month’s uprising. ‘On the one hand, some of these issues speak volumes about the average Nepali’s patience and perhaps optimism that things will change in the long run. On the other hand, one is also forced to wonder how much longer they will be able to put up with unfavourable conditions if things don’t change.’ It does seem Nepali had enough with corruption, governance failure and political apathy to the concerns of ordinary people. The final chapter lists the non-negotiables to realise the 2043 Nepal Roadmap: democratic values and freedom of speech, a capitalist welfare state and socio-political transformation to tackle corruption and impunity. The book notes, ‘Countries transitioning to democratic rule experienced a 20% increase in GDP over a 25 year period compared to what they would have achieved under authoritarian regimes. After the end of the Shah rule in 2006, Nepal’s GDP rose from US$10 billion to US$44 billion by 2024.’ The government’s Vision 2030 document projects Nepal’s GDP at US$100 billion, and the Vision 2043 estimates that it will be a US$423 billion economy with a per capita of US$12,100. However, it will need more than optimism and practical action to make these projections real. China and India loom large throughout the book with examples of small city states like Singapore which have taken advantage of their strategic location. Despite the tension between India and China, the two will have to collaborate given the inherent advantages. China has replaced the United States as India’s biggest trading partner. Sujeev Shakya is a great admirer of former Singaporean diplomat and author Kishore Mahbubani, and he has written a blurb for the book. He quotes Mahbubani saying that for the past 2,000 years, apart from the last two hundred, Asian countries have dominated the world, and it is quite natural that the world’s economic centre is returning to Asia. And Nepal is strategically placed to make the most of it because of its location between two of the world’s fastest growing economies. We just have to get our politics right, and have a strategy for equitable growth in the new Nepali century.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251016091052_78b2d1495d59cd492a17693e0e770b65230c7cb749393ac6643f4676b73832ef.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20251016091052_78b2d1495d59cd492a17693e0e770b65230c7cb749393ac6643f4676b73832ef" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Sujeev Shakya book details NT"></figure>

Retrofitting Nepal for future shocks

In the aftermath of the GenZ protests last month, as new PM Sushila Karki chose the first members of her Council of Ministers, youth collectives urged that it reflect the country’s diversity by including women, youth and people from various ethnic and socio-cultural backgrounds.&nbsp;
It took another couple of weeks for Karki to include &nbsp;bureaucrat and public health expert Sangeeta Mishra as &nbsp;Health Minister in her next tranche of ministers. Almost immediately, people dug up a video of Mishra calling herself “Nepali, but a native Indian”.
She was telling it like it was: Mishra is a naturalised Nepali citizen. But there was outrage in the ultra-nationalistic cybersphere. Mishra’s name was withdrawn from the list of ministers, with government officials citing an ongoing investigation at the CIAA.&nbsp;
With her Cabinet still incomplete a month after taking office, Prime Minister Karki was preparing to induct GenZ as ministers. A leak in the media floated the names, one of which was of Tashi Lhazom, a climate activist and filmmaker from Humla’s Limi Valley.&nbsp;
Almost immediately, social media erupted with discriminatory, xenophobic and misogynistic epithets against her: that she supported a separatist movement, that she was a foreign agent, that her citizenship was disputed, that she did not ‘look’ or ‘speak’ like a Nepali.&nbsp;
Political figures like Gyanendra Shahi, a prominent voice calling for the restoration of a Hindu monarchy, added fuel to the fire by making bigoted and false remarks about her heritage.
The former Commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission, Mohna Ansari, wrote on social media that it was shameful to question Lhazom’s identity: ‘Ms Tashi Lhazom is as Nepali as you are. Our society’s ugliest face and biggest flaw is doubting our own. Real patriotism embraces diversity — fake nationalism must end.’
Ansari, a human rights lawyer and activist, has also often been subject to Islamophobic and derogatory comments on digital platforms. &nbsp;
In response, the Indigenous GenZ Collective released Lhazom’s Nepali citizenship certificate to debunk the mistruths spreading on digital as well as mainstream media.
What makes a Nepali? What does a Nepali look or sound like? Who is a Nepali?
‘Had my name been Tashi Poudel, Thapa, Bhattarai or Ghimire, this would not have happened,’ Lhazom said in an interview with Kantipur following an avalanche of bigotry against her. ‘They questioned me because I do not look Nepali, or speak Nepali like a Khas. Because it is not my mother tongue.’
It is an indictment of Nepali society that indigenous Nepalis have to present proof, at the slightest inconvenience of mostly the dominant groups, of being a citizen of this nation simply because they might not fit into an imagined idea of Nepali nationhood by virtue of physical appearance, speech, geography, or faith.
And while we celebrate the successes of Nepal-born naturalised foreign citizens (some now hold elected office in the US) we refuse to afford the same respect to naturalised Nepali citizens, and those born in Nepal to excluded groups, nor do we expect them to work in the national interest if they are given responsibility to govern. And women are singled out twice as much for scrutiny.
Then cyber Nepal went into a tizzy when videos appeared of a biker’s group clad in black t-shirts emblazoned with the acronym ‘TOB’ which was interpreted to stand for ‘Tibetan Original Blood’ and linked to the Free Tibet movement.
The accusations snowballed into disinformation, xenophobia, and even calls for violence against Nepalis of Tibetan heritage and the Tibetan community in Nepal.&nbsp;
In the aftermath of the September protest, the hope was that politics and the bureaucracy would finally be rid of orthodox political actors. But first, we as a nation need to collectively examine the biases and bigotry that exist in Nepal’s socio-cultural space.&nbsp;
Otherwise, Nepal’s multiculturalism will be limited to just words in the Constitution and political tokenism.
No one who is in government now or in future can be expected to be completely free of subjective opinions, ideology, affiliation to a cause, or prior activism. And such criticism falls disproportionately on activists, advocates, and members from underserved and underrepresented communities.&nbsp;
One cannot be apolitical and hope to participate in politics, and as we move forward to rebuild the system it must not just reflect diverse communities, but also celebrate diversity of thought and beliefs.&nbsp;
Resorting to ethnocentrism, racism and chauvinism with conspiracy theories and discriminatory dog-whistling about fellow citizens is a disservice to Nepali nationhood. It is Nepal’s diversity that makes us strong.&nbsp;
Shristi Karki

What makes a Nepali?

We were used to getting stuck in Kathmandu’s notorious traffic with gas fumes and horns blaring. We are still stuck in traffic, but now it is mostly the quiet hum of EVs, and street-level air is noticeably cleaner. Alongside Norway, Nepal has the highest combustion-to-EV conversion rates in the world. And we are not even a middle-income country yet. How did we get here?&nbsp; For the first time in Nepal’s history, 2025 saw an unprecedented turn of events: two back-to-back auto shows a week apart in August, independent of each other. This was timed for the warm up to the Dasain season. &nbsp;&nbsp; The first auto show 6-11 August was the <a href="https://naimanepal.org/mobility-expo" target="_blank">NAIMA Mobility Expo 2025 </a>by the newly established Nepal Automobile Importers and Manufacturers Association which saw 35 new models, many of them EVs with 50 participating brands like Toyota, BYD, Hyundai, Kia, MG, Mahindra, Omoda &amp; Jaecoo, Proton and Leapmotor.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025101711108_d8c03f5141f0086814d866543af4d95310f340a7191363e4705aedda8e4b73d0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2025101711108_d8c03f5141f0086814d866543af4d95310f340a7191363e4705aedda8e4b73d0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1770" height="1097" loading="lazy" alt="Electric cars in Nepal NT"> </figure>  The exhibition had a strong focus on two-wheelers aimed at affordable and easy mobility in a town now known for long traffic jams (see report). NAIMA attracted a record 100,000 visitors in six days.&nbsp; The second one was the Nepal Automobile Dealer’s Association Auto Show 2025 (<a href="https://youtu.be/emSd0mUuMjU" target="_blank">NADA</a>) to address the growing demands for cars and two-wheelers. It was a natural expression of new market forces at work, on one hand, and popular taste, on the other — one influencing the other.&nbsp; This year’s NADA Auto Show was its 17th iteration, and carried a hefty legacy: exhibiting a contemporary lineup from manufacturers such as Tata, Suzuki, Xpeng and Nammi, but also classics for vintage car lovers like the 1928 Ford Model A and a rare 1955 Austin Princess Dm4 sedan.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025101711108_dda7d264ddb12448cc10d9b1cb699632eee975741fc4c56055e4df904579c34f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="2025101711108_dda7d264ddb12448cc10d9b1cb699632eee975741fc4c56055e4df904579c34f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1381" height="848" loading="lazy" alt="Electric cars in Nepal NT"> </figure>  It also showcased the Deepal eVTOL (a 2-seater drone), and a humanoid robot with dog. Curious onlookers at Bhrikuti Mandap thronged the show with footfall crossing 170,000.&nbsp; Earlier this year, I had traveled to attend India's largest auto show, the <a href="https://youtu.be/OgIIvXx6yOM?si=zNmMgklzCJpagTye" target="_blank">Bharat Mobility Global expo</a> in January in New Delhi. It was part of a <a href="https://youtu.be/GT6LBKiJvyg?si=r7YaxahjSAnsIfBY" target="_blank">roadtrip</a> from one capital to another with BYD Nepal on a Dolphin. The journey took three days through Bhairawa and then the Lucknow-Agra Expressway, covering a distance of 1200km one way.&nbsp; The drive through the horrid Narayanghat-Butwal corridor alone was testimony that EVs are no longer fragile and could handle a beating. And while both Nepal's economy pales in comparison to India, it was evident that the private passenger segment is well on its way to electrification. More than 70% of all vehicles sold in Nepal last year were electric. Sales representatives are unanimous: inquiries for EVs are at an all-time high and overshadow demand for ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles. Besides four-wheelers, a fast-growing proportion of scooters were also electric.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251017111016_e4cd988ca915ddd283a86d48fac332f22f98ff776b3d22391e10156ad56d7a1a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20251017111016_e4cd988ca915ddd283a86d48fac332f22f98ff776b3d22391e10156ad56d7a1a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1389" height="863" loading="lazy" alt="Electric cars in Nepal"> </figure>  I have spent the last two years <a href="https://youtu.be/256YQa37Ol8?si=Sv1wQ8EdvgMCiTM_" target="_blank">reviewing</a> many of these EVs. The days of batter-powered cars being small toy cars, with sub-par build quality and the range of golf carts have long gone.&nbsp; Fit and finishing in both Chinese and Indian EVs are comparable to established brand names even in Japanese and European markets. But most significantly for us in Nepal, battery technology and range have made inter-city travel on our highways imaginable. The media sometimes portrays Nepal as a prime testing/dumping ground for EVs due to lack of regulation and the proximity to the world’s largest EV exporter (China) and our tough geographical conditions. That is just a part of the story. What actually stands out is the incredible appetite for risk among Nepali buyers.&nbsp; Since the Covid pandemic charging infrastructure has spread across the country. My early trips between Kathmandu and Pokhara saw the possibility of topping up with just one charging gun at the <a href="https://rsr.com.np/" target="_blank">Riverside Springs Resort in Kurintar</a> – and I would have to wait in line, or the charger simply would not be working.&nbsp; These days, by the time I cross Kurintar from Koteswor in my Kona, I will have passed at least 10 charging stations with multiple guns. &nbsp; On my <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@casuallyannoyeddriver" target="_blank">YouTube reviews</a>, people from across the globe ask about range and handling EVs on poor road conditions like ours. The occasional skeptics also leave comments like: ‘If this works in the higher altitudes and mountainous roads of Nepal, then it should be a breeze down here in the flats of Australia and/or hills around Auckland!’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251017111016_8b4fbe59884538849be6428eb2ce9249627a8970ed9ef4cd3c792682bf26dbed.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20251017111016_8b4fbe59884538849be6428eb2ce9249627a8970ed9ef4cd3c792682bf26dbed" data-rendition-name="original" width="1139" height="787" loading="lazy" alt="Electric cars in Nepal"> </figure>  SATURATION? However, both the NAIMA and NADA auto show also confirmed that we could be hitting a peak EV. From having just one car in one budget segment, there are now multiple alternatives stretching from the entry of below Rs3 million to the premium and high-end Rs 10 million price point.&nbsp; Furthermore, the price wars on EVs that started in China a year ago have also trickled across to Nepal. Models such as the <a href="https://youtu.be/3wFN2I81Tq0?si=T6L4SAfRpoyNNvYC" target="_blank">MG S5</a>, Nammi Vigo, BYD Atto 2 (and 1) and <a href="https://youtu.be/y214kWbWTc4?si=bIevanDZEPQdkEs4" target="_blank">Deepal S05</a> saw aggressive pricing schemes and discounts that disrupted pre-existing quotas. Consumers can suddenly afford a lot more cars, and travel a lot further for a considerably smaller price tag.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025101711108_276afec1bdbd37497572939a4eada4bef74c9d075cd5851892c4dd1985edb9c5.jpg" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="2025101711108_276afec1bdbd37497572939a4eada4bef74c9d075cd5851892c4dd1985edb9c5" data-rendition-name="original" width="1953" height="1107" loading="lazy" alt="Electric cars in Nepal NT"> </figure>  However, booking numbers at both auto shows did not necessarily translate into actual deliveries. The fact remains that almost 80% of registered vehicles in Nepal are still two-wheelers, and GDP per capita stands at just $1500 — among the lowest in the world.&nbsp; This means that early first-adopters are first-time buyers, and the remaining customers in the market are more skeptical and less willing. But there are also those that are unlikely to consider the EV suitable to travel to off-road rural areas. For the average Nepali family, upgrading or purchasing a new car is no small decision. It happens in five years or more with resale values being a big determinant. The EV boom may be reaching saturation.&nbsp; Both NADA and NAIMA shows drove home the message that Nepal’s transport sector is on an electric fast-track, but the road ahead will be bumpy.&nbsp; Soon after the shows, the glacial debris flow on the Bhote Kosi knocked out the Rasuwa-Kerung border with China, and earlier landslides had already blocked the Koradi checkpoint. Manufacturers are now using the less convenient Korala border in Mustang. BYD, Leapmotor and Omoda &amp; Jaecoo have begun rerouting their vehicles to make up for delivery deadlines.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025101711108_62fd70a476656062005959c247b38178d8efabf8570c73929295c0a103ff4013.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="2025101711108_62fd70a476656062005959c247b38178d8efabf8570c73929295c0a103ff4013" data-rendition-name="original" width="1438" height="1031" loading="lazy" alt="Electric cars in Nepal NT"> </figure>  Although the distance from the capital to the Korala border (470km) is four times longer than from Rasuwa (128km) &nbsp;and Tatopani (112km), it is still considered faster and more cost effective than shipping via India using sea routes.&nbsp; And then Nepal was engulfed in turmoil after the youth-led protests of 8-9 September and its aftermath. Many automobile showrooms around Thapathali including Tata, Hyundai and CG were vandalised and torched.&nbsp; Sushila Karki leads a caretaker government till elections are held in March, and the unsettled situation will affect the economy and investment climate as well as the automobile sector. Arnav Upadhyay reviews automobiles and promotes road safety under the handle Casually Annoyed Driver on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@casuallyannoyeddriver" target="_blank">Youtube</a>, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@casuallyannoyeddriver" target="_blank">Tiktok</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/casuallyannoyeddriver/" target="_blank">IG</a>, and this monthly column Drive Line in Nepali Times.

Is Nepal reaching peak EV?

Nepali Times: You just climbed Mt Everest without oxygen and then skied down the mountain. How does one even train for something like that?&nbsp; Andrzej Bargiel: What made skiing down Everest possible was all the years of experience I’ve gained in high-altitude mountains. Spending a lot of time in the high mountains helps me read the snow, the conditions, and potential hazards. I need to ski often, especially in steep and exposed terrain, so that it becomes a place where I feel completely at home.&nbsp; I also climb regularly, I am an IFMGA mountain guide. I also run, ride a bike, and work out in the gym. Like in any endurance sport, I have to prepare my body for the demands of an expedition.&nbsp; What motivated you to do Everest? This was actually my third attempt on Everest. After many years of ski mountaineering and racing, I felt it would be great to use that experience to take on a meaningful project in the Himalaya. It’s about exploring what’s really possible, testing my limits, and seeing how far I can go. I was inspired by people like Davo Karničar, Fredrik Ericsson, and Hans Kammerlander, who showed that skiing in the high mountains can truly be done.&nbsp; What do you have to be most careful about when skiing at such high altitude? You really have to manage your energy well, because you need to be ready to spend many hours at very high altitude — even above 8,000 meters. Risk management is essential. You have to read the signals nature gives you and make the right decisions, choosing safe moments to move. The dangers are always there: avalanches, crevasses, extreme fatigue, and exposed terrain, so you have to stay fully aware and focused. Safety comes first, always. You also need to stay open to changing your plans, because in the mountains, things don’t always go the way you expect.&nbsp; Why did you choose autumn and not spring?&nbsp; Autumn is really the only season when you can think about making a full ski descent from the summit all the way to base camp. In the spring there’s much more ice left after winter, and the snow cover is broken. A full descent simply isn’t possible then, because too much rock and ice are exposed. Of course, in spring it’s easier to climb the mountain. The conditions are more stable, the snow is firmer, there’s less avalanche risk, and you don’t have to wade through deep snow. The autumn ascent is very complex and demanding, which is why so few expeditions attempt it. But in autumn, skiing becomes possible. Several meters of fresh snow fall on Everest’s slopes, covering the rocks and ice, and that transforms the mountain into something wild, beautiful, and most importantly skiable. What was your favourite part this time? The moment I remember most fondly was reaching the summit — and that first stretch just below the top, when I clicked into my skis and started moving down through surprisingly nice snow. It felt smooth and natural, a kind of free, easy glide down toward the Hillary Step. I could feel the movement, the flow, and at the same time this awareness that I was skiing from the highest point on Earth. It was just a really good feeling. The Icefall was another special moment. I felt from a skier’s point of view that it really worked. I could make my turns, and the descent itself was fun, technical, but a beautiful one too — full of variety, weaving through ice towers and seracs that looked incredible in the sunlight. It was challenging, but also just pure joy.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251015141012_e9e671e07b089a7d59e4b9ba34df993180ae2dfcae3786113a4d48c515427b3d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20251015141012_e9e671e07b089a7d59e4b9ba34df993180ae2dfcae3786113a4d48c515427b3d" data-rendition-name="original" width="1365" height="2048" loading="lazy" alt="Andrzej Bargiel NT"> </figure>  And what was most challenging? The hardest moment came on 14 September, during our first summit push attempt. We were breaking trail in deep snow and reached the South Col in the evening. I already knew we wouldn’t be going higher that night, so I decided to stay there, to use the climb to acclimatise.&nbsp; But after that attempt failed, the team completely lost faith that the project could still succeed. Almost everyone started packing up, convinced it was over, nobody thought that the snow would stabilise enough.&nbsp; I skied down from the Col early the next morning in really good conditions, while the rest of the team descended on foot. Rebuilding belief within the team that it could still be done was the toughest part, mentally. It took me several days to bring that energy and motivation back, to make everyone believe again that we could try once more. What was your support crew like?&nbsp; I want to thank the whole team — all team members from Poland, all those who contributed to the project, all the sponsors, and the Seven Summit Treks crew, especially Dawa Sherpa, who had the courage to go to the top with me.&nbsp; In the end, his courage made it possible. Doing it alone would have been almost impossible. With him there, I felt safe, and that made all the difference. What potential for skiing do you see in the Himalaya?&nbsp; Huge. There’s massive potential here both for ski touring and for a more recreational form of skiing. In the Himalaya, there are so many mountains you can ski from, and they don’t have to be eight-thousanders.&nbsp; There is an incredible amount of snow even in the lower valleys during the winter, which makes it a really interesting place for skiing. You can find great powder and enjoy long, wide runs.&nbsp; The key, I think, is to keep developing local guiding structures. There should be more certified guides in Nepal, Sherpas gaining guiding qualifications, and a proper professional rescue service. That would definitely increase the sense of safety for both skiers and tourists coming to the mountains. I’d love to come back to the Himalayas one winter just to ski in those lower parts — in deep snow, on much longer and wider skis – that would be pure pleasure. At those lower altitudes, the fun can be so much greater, with a more relaxed, freeride kind of feeling.

clean-energy