<figure><img width="1122" height="810" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710124/6390574c9c7e80680e0ce14ejpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: RSS</figcaption></figure>World leaders, including from Nepal, will gather again at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt this month to assess the climate emergency, and agree on urgent measures to avert irreversible damage to the ecosphere. The Climate Summit is burdened with unnecessarily unwieldy nomenclature and acronyms which make its deliberations unnecessarily esoteric to politicians and ordinary people. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/10/1129947">UNFCCC</a>) will be having its 27th session of the Conference of Parties (COP) to take stock of the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II Sixth Assessment Report (<a href="https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6wg2/pdf/IPCC_AR6_WGII_CrossChapterPaper5.pdf">IPCC WG II AR 6</a>). We need to first to de-jargonise the above, and translate targets and commitments into everyday language so that people the world over understand the urgency of the emergency. Plain words would also expose the hypocrisy, grandstanding, victim-playing and victim-blaming that occurs every year at these summits.This conference is called COP27. This means governments have met every year 27 times since 1994 to find ways to ‘stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to prevent dangerous interference from human activity on the climate system’. The atmosphere would be a lot warmer if nothing had been done, but it would have been a lot cooler if more had been done.The summit in Egypt from 6-8 November 2022 takes place in a year during which the world suffered unprecedented back-to-back climate-induced disasters like record-breaking heat waves, forest fires, storms, glacial retreat and floods. Scientists say the intensity and frequency of these calamities are happening decades earlier than forecast. If COP27 just meets earlier commitments from governments to pay $100 billion a year for mitigation and adaptation it will have served its purpose. But given the current global economic crisis due to the pandemic and the Ukraine conflict, that does not look likely. Which is why climate justice demands by some countries, including Nepal, for ‘loss and damage’ is probably dead in the water. The argument is that the impact of the climate crisis is causing so much loss of life, livelihoods and property that just adapting to the change is no longer adequate.Given the severity of the floods in Pakistan this year, the prolonged heat waves in India and China, landslides and floods in Nepal, it is clear that developing countries are unjustly and disproportionately paying for a crisis not of their making.  Even so, we in Nepal have to recognise that the climate crisis is just tip of the pyramid of problems that pre-date climate change. Structural factors like state neglect, governance failure, corruption and exclusion was already putting much of the population at risk. Politicians in Kathmandu cannot blame the chronic food insecurity in western Nepal on climate change. They have done little in the past half-century to provide hill-irrigation to lessen farmers’ dependence on rain-fed subsistence agriculture. They cannot blame the migration every year of 80,000 Nepalis for overseas employment on the climate crisis. For centuries, Nepalis have been migrating because of the lack of jobs, opportunities, poverty, indebtedness and discrimination. A jumbo Nepali delegation is flying to Sharm El-Sheikh with a new Forest Minister who knows next to nothing about climate, is intent on logging 4,000 hectares of forest to build a new international airport, and allow cronies to build safari hotels inside national parks.He will be demanding ‘loss and damage’ compensation for the Melamchi water project that suffered costly damage in last year’s flood. But the real loss in the Melamchi was caused by chronic corruption, mismanagement, political interference and incompetence spanning decades.  The destruction of farms and homes by landslides due to rampant, corruption-driven road building by rogue politicians is far more serious than the damage caused by global climate change.  No doubt, extreme weather events will be more frequent right across the Himalaya in coming years. There may be catastrophic co-seismic multiple glacial lake outburst floods. We have to prepare for those calamities by clever fund-raising, not go COP-hopping with a begging bowl.At COP26 in Glasgow last year, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba pledged three things: increase forest cover to 45% by 2030, ensure climate resilience for all vulnerable Nepalis by 2030, and start reducing emissions to become carbon negative after 2045. Nepal already has 44.74% forest cover, we just have to make sure we do not destroy what is left. The second commitment is so unmeasurable as to make it meaningless. And we do not see any new far-reaching tax incentives for battery vehicles or household electricity use to make use of surplus hydropower to reach net-zero in the next two decades.Nepal’s ‘enhanced’ Nationally Determined Contribution presented to the UN aimed to hit net-zero by 2050. At the rate petroleum imports are rising, the country will be bankrupt by then. A dramatic switch to renewables for transport and household energy could allow Nepal to be carbon neutral even by 2030. But for that we need competence, commitment and political will.   Nepal has to reduce fossil fuel use not so much to save the planet, but to slash our petroleum import bill and improve urban air quality. Climate change gets a tangential mention in the manifestos of the major political parties preparing for this month’s polls. It does not even merit an empty election slogan. Nepal has to stop playing victim all the time and invoke climate change for ‘loss and damage’ compensation. We should instead put our minds (and money) to implementing domestic low-carbon policies.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/climate-change-only-one-factor-in-pakistan-flood/"> Climate change only one factor in Pakistan flood</a>, Nepali Times

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Which loss and damage?

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016110/636d12189c7e80680e0a98bajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="664" height="450"/>Nepal Rastra Bank’s report last month was badly timed — it was a bad idea to sound a warning that Nepal is going belly up just as the country was grinding to a halt for a month of Dasain-Tihar-Chhat festivals.The indicators were ominous: Nepal’s foreign currency reserves fell to $11.1 billion in September, much below the figure for last year and only enough to pay for 8 months of imports. There has been a 76% increase in the import bill to a record Rs352 billion last fiscal year — despite a pandemic slowdown.In the first two months of this fiscal year, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/defying-predictions-nepals-remittances-still-high/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/defying-predictions-nepals-remittances-still-high/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1636429484700000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHKGPEf-eEDtwjn0f_p_HMzrqYQGw">overseas remittances that had held steady despite the pandemic</a> went down by 6.3% to Rs155 billion.One of the holy days of Tihar last week was dedicated to Goddess Laxmi, and many prayed for individual wealth and prosperity. We should have been praying for the country’s economic survival.Just those two figures for falling remittances and rising imports should have been enough to sound the emergency alarm. But fatalism is so steeped in Nepal’s governance culture that we hope things will sort themselves out.After all, if things go really wrong, Pashupatinath will come to the rescue. But the Lord Protector of Nepal must be shaking his head at the disarray of the state.We have come to expect lack of accountability in self-dealing politicians and elected officials, but the judiciary used to be relatively untainted and independent.The violation of the principle of separation of powers by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/what-is-happening-to-nepals-supreme-court/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/what-is-happening-to-nepals-supreme-court/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1636429484700000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG-raVzHQQBlpr5oUCza97BMC7wkA">Chief Justice Cholendra SJB Rana</a> and the mutiny in the Supreme Court has dragged the judiciary also into dysfunction.With the court system paralysed, Rana has been reported to be looking for a ‘graceful exit’, and apparently proposed a leave of absence until his term expires. The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/who-wants-early-elections-and-why/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/who-wants-early-elections-and-why/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1636429484700000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHWRzSQmjSbl2C65i3KvLsEqN0uUA">top leadership</a> of the main parties have been silent about the fate of Chief Justice Rana, who after all was instrumental in overturning K P Oli’s dissolution of the Lower House which <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-court-orders-deuba-to-succeed-oli/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-court-orders-deuba-to-succeed-oli/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1636429484700000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHI-krjS3d3YX690askSFTe2LB0vA">put Deuba in office</a> on 14 July.They also have all kinds of pending cases in the Supreme Court, and do not want antagonise a Chief Justice in case he survives this crisis. Rana has reportedly used the holidays for intense political lobbying through emissaries. That would likely entail a quid pro quo over not starting an impeachment process in Parliament in return for future favours.Whether Rana remains chief justice or is forced to step down is mixed up with politics — after all it was the failure of politicians to sort out their power struggles in Parliament that allowed the judiciary to have such a magnified role in who gets to be in government and who doesn’t. There is so much corruption and vested interest in the political nominations to the Supreme Court that just removing Chief Justice Rana will not stem the rot.Besides, the real emergency Nepal faces today is not about who succeeds Rana or if the coalition remains intact till elections, but the fate of the economy.Remittances pay for imports, and inflows are down and imports are up. Hard currency reserves to finance <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/blood-sweat-tears/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/blood-sweat-tears/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1636429484700000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH52fe2VOfxxaDWmxbqr8rkJcg-Hg">Nepal’s imports, mainly of petroleum</a>, food and other items are falling. Exports did go up, but the trade deficit rose to Rs270 billion in the past two months.Besides, Nepal’s main item of export is processed palm and soya oil that depend on massive imports of raw material. A <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-less-and-less-able-to-feed-itself/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-less-and-less-able-to-feed-itself/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1636429484700000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHt2gsBj5b0itg1RhxrL9unH8Y3-Q">growing asymmetry between imports and exports</a> means the balance of payments is now Rs83.4 billion — double what it was in July.Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba pledged at COP26 to reduce Nepal’s carbon footprint, and Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal is pushing for a transition to electric transport. They seem to have finally realised that having a petroleum import bill more than all exports combined is not sustainable.Destructive post-monsoon rains will reduce rice harvests by 20%, which means increased food import. What will we use our remaining foreign exchange reserves for: to buy food or fuel? It might to be an either/or.There does not seem to be a sense of urgency about this emergency in the Finance Ministry. It must act immediately to increase taxes on luxury items, encourage local agriculture production and invest heavily in infrastructure to create local jobs.The economic crisis is a result of political neglect and disarray. Trouble is: we cannot wait for the politics to sort itself out to fix the economy this time.

Urgency about Nepal’s economic emergency

Samsung Nepal has opened pre-orders for the Galaxy A57 5G and A37 5G. Both phones run Samsung’s One UI 8.5, featuring AI capabilities like voice transcription, Circle to Search, and photo editing. They feature a 50MP triple-camera system, a Super AMOLED display, and six years of OS and security updates.

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Know your Ministers

‘One early morning, we heard the ambassador’s wife cry out, “Ram, Ram, Ram!” A disaster has befallen Nepal!” She had heard on the radio that a fire had consumed Singha Durbar." This is not about the arson attack on 9 September 2025, but the one on 8 July, 1973. It started in the South Wing of the then single-largest building in all of Nepal. It took two days to bring the blaze under control, requiring the use of explosives to demolish one wing to protect the imposing western facade. As Bhekh Bahadur Thapa recalls in the English translation of his memoir A Life in Public Service: Nepal from Autocracy to Democracy, he was then on leave from the Nepal government serving with the IDRC in Ottawa.&nbsp; He had already served as Nepal’s Finance Secretary at age 25, went on to be Finance Minister and Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank. He was already younger than some of the GenZ ministers in Nepal’s present RSP government. Thapa, now 89, was at the launch of the book in February which was attended by former diplomats and bureaucrats. After speeches by panelists, there was a question from the audience about how Thapa had managed to be the diplomat he was, managing Nepal’s international relations on the world stage.&nbsp; Writer and journalist Akhilesh Upadhyay, who was moderating the panel, responded by going into the section of the book where we see Thapa as an ambassador to the US, playing tennis with White House officials, cultivating a network of contacts to project the identity and welfare of Nepal, and making it possible for a state visit by King Birendra to Ronald Reagan’s America. The book is full of anecdotes that suggest Thapa was a clever and strategic diplomat, always calm and unruffled, easily making friends in high places with his maturity and engaging sense of humour. Thapa’s memoir is heavy on details about Nepal’s administrative history during the years he was active in public service, serving as minister and ambassador under three kings: Mahendra, Birendra and Gyanendra, and alongside five prime ministers.&nbsp; Aside from an insider look on how certain treaties, development deals and research projects in Nepal came into fruition, Thapa goes into great detail about his personal and professional relationships with the kings, ministers, ambassadors, foreign leaders and politicians.&nbsp; As a reader, one is struck by the level of detail around the events that unfolded in Nepal over the years during Thapa’s tenure. Was Thapa recording a journal over the years of the events and the conversations that transpired, or were they committed to his phenomenal memory? Either way, the reader gets a glimpse of Nepal’s recent history from the early days of the Panchayat, through the People’s Movement and the democracy period, the Maoist insurgency, Royal Palace massacre of 2001, and Gyanendra’s coup of 2005.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026041204048_125dc8ae300a1e33124f394abe724d42727f83e067b0201d2008b58d60c459a4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2026041204048_125dc8ae300a1e33124f394abe724d42727f83e067b0201d2008b58d60c459a4" data-rendition-name="original" width="1584" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="How to win friends and influence nations NT"> </figure>  Not enough is said about the political parties of the time whose presence led to the way Nepal’s multiparty democracy came to be shaped. The book keeps its focus on the administration and the key figures around it, mostly those in the Panchayat era. Towards the second half of the book, we do start to hear about political parties, but not in great depth. Another figure whose presence in the book is conspicuously less prominent is that of his wife, Rita Thapa — the person who seems to have rescued him every time financial quandary or family care became a challenge. Yet, we do not see her as a full person. Perhaps because of the personal tragedies in his life, the children are also barely mentioned.&nbsp; The book is therefore less personal and more technical. Throughout, we learn about Thapa’s thinking as he navigated the world of diplomacy to win him the trust of those who mattered. There are tips here for a new generation of Nepali officials and diplomats about how much commitment and focus is needed to be good at one’s job and serve the national interest. This book adds to tomes that have been written on Nepal’s fragile relationship with India. ‘India has always wished for Nepal to remain dependent on it,’ writes Thapa, who served as Nepal’s ambassador to India and later in the Eminent Persons Group &nbsp;on Indo-Nepal relations that has been allowed to languish. The book has several insights into the Indo-Nepal trysts with diplomacy and agency.&nbsp; China’s role is also recorded, viewed through conversations during a visit to Beijing, but all that was before Nepal’s neighbour to the north emerged as a world economic and military power. The book also has such sudden instances of quirkiness and humour. For instance, we see a young Thapa in America explaining to a government official why he would like to return to Nepal instead of settling down in the US. “Because, Nepal is beautiful,” he said. The text is immaculate and does not read much like a translation, credit for which clearly goes to the team that put the edition together: translator Prawin Adhikari, &nbsp;Anagha Neelakanthan and Bhekh Thapa’s daughter, Manjushree. As Nepal enters a new era of governance and diplomacy, A Life in Public Service: Nepal from Autocracy to Democracy should be essential reading for students of political science, economics and foreign affairs who can gain a fresh perspective on the country’s trajectory.&nbsp; There are dozens of forgotten state secrets recorded in the book, but the reader must also remember this is a story told from one person’s perspective and there may be others.&nbsp; So, what really made Thapa the diplomat he was? I met him in 2004 at the Kantipur TV studio when he was serving as king Gyanendra’s foreign minister. He was there for a studio interview, and I was just done with my English newscast.&nbsp; He surprised me at the door: “Pratibha! I’ve been reading your articles in The Kathmandu Post. You must keep writing.” I thanked him, glad to have been noticed for my work by a stranger. That was perhaps one of the things that set Thapa apart — he excelled at staying close to those in power, while also noticing those who were not.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260412040412_213e706136a038ec9f5e2b8c6d7f7c1e9ceed9479e22fe2884872ad7bd20955f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260412040412_213e706136a038ec9f5e2b8c6d7f7c1e9ceed9479e22fe2884872ad7bd20955f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Book details"> </figure>

How to win friends and influence nations

Prime Minister Balendra Shah on Wednesday broke tradition and met with 17 foreign envoys collectively, a move that was a notable departure from how his predecessors operated.&nbsp;
Shah had already set himself apart by talking less, listening more, and delegating to trusted friends. But by meeting all ambassadors at one go in the presence of the Foreign Ministry, he signalled a paradigm shift in how he wants Nepal to be seen: no longer just balancing India and China, but as a country confident about its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/guest-editorial/tripolar-contestation-over-nepal">strategic importance and place in the world</a>.
In just two weeks, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rsp-dos-and-don-ts">RSP has sprung into action </a>on multiple fronts to implement its ambitious 100-point, 100-days action plan. It has taken short-term measures to mitigate the impact of the Gulf war, as well as medium- and long- term measures to streamline the bureaucracy. A few high-profile figures have been made examples of to drive the message home.
Earlier this week, the government recalled six politically appointed ambassadors, the most notable being long-serving Shankar Sharma from New Delhi. The Kathmandu District Court issued arrest warrants against former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his former foreign minister wife Arzu Rana on charges of money laundering and corruption.
Each ministry has been trying to clean up the accumulated rot from the past three decades: regulatory overhaul of microfinance, education, health and service delivery.&nbsp;
These actions widely disseminated campaign-style on YouTube and TikTok have made most Nepalis hopeful that the party they installed in power means business.
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BACKLASH
But such attempts to overhaul a long-entrenched political culture were bound to face backlash. In their impatience and enthusiasm to get things done, some of Prime Minister Shah’s ministers have over-reached.
It was common knowledge that government-paid advertising in the mainstream press was kickback-driven, but the PMO’s directive that official notices be published or broadcast only on state-run media has been denounced — especially as the media industry struggles to stay afloat.
More serious are some recent appointments by ministers of relatives and figures closely associated with the RSP to key positions. This has rankled because this party built its political plank on ending nepotism and graft.&nbsp;
News that Home Minister Sudan Gurung allegedly had not paid rent on leased land, which illegally encroached on the lake in Pokhara did not help. &nbsp;
Prime Minister Shah himself has come under scrutiny for appointing a kitchen cabinet full of male buddies from his time as Kathmandu mayor. To douse criticism he brought in as adviser investigative journalist Deepa Dahal, who has exposed corruption in high places of the previous coalitions.&nbsp;
Shah’s appointment of another political adviser Asim Shah to the head Constitution Amendment Task Force, is also seen as problematic. He is a filmmaker and former lawmaker, but does not have a background in constitutional law.&nbsp;
Even more controversial is the Cabinet’s decision to appoint RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane’s legal counsel, Narayan Kandel, as Attorney General. Kandel used to be a UK permanent resident, and does not have as much experience practicing law in Nepal.&nbsp;
Kandel’s appointment drew flak and raised eyebrows, and with the pending legal cases against Lamichhane this appointment represents a flagrant conflict of interest.
Health Minister Nisha Mehta was also accused of favouritism after reappointing Junu Shrestha, wife of Labour Minister Dipak Kumar Shah, as member of the Health Insurance Board which had earlier suspended her. The Labour Minister’s rambling rant at the Board’s meeting on Tuesday has not helped the RSP’s image.&nbsp;
(UPDATE: On Thursday, Prime Minister Shah sacked the Labour Minister after the RSP found him in breach of the party's code of conduct and discipline. He served 14 days in the Cabinet, one of the shortest tenures for a minister in Nepal )
It is hard to know what <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/ball-in-balen-s-court">Balendra Shah is thinking</a>, and how Rabi Lamichhane is going to justify some of these moves. After all, making politics, governance, and bureaucracy a meritocracy has been the core tenet of the RSP, and it risks alienating its mainly youth base if these missteps persist.
But at least for now, most RSP supporters seem to be giving the party the benefit of doubt.

renewables

Which loss and damage?

Urgency about Nepal’s economic emergency

Galaxy A series

Know your Ministers

How to win friends and influence nations

Nepal’s new government springs into action