Nepalese Youth for Climate Action (NYCA) in support of Clean Energy Nepal, Plan Nepal, UNICEF, World Vision and Save the Children organized a 4th National Youth Climate Summit "National Youth Conference on Climate Change" as a side event of 8th Community Based Adaption Program (CBA-8) on the date 27-29 April,2014.The conference was organized in Kathmandu, Nepal with the objective of broaching up the most hot issue of recent years, Climate change among more than 1oo youths and children from different parts of the country ,sensitizing them for climate action and collectively pushing up the local, regional , national and international authorities to the mainstream of climate change, development and planning. NYCA(www.nyca.net.np), established in 2008 with the slogan "Caring for Climate, Caring for ourselves" have a unequivocal vision of economically prosperous and sustainable Nepal where youth play active role in leading the society towards cleaner future. On realizing the urgency of the actions to be implemented, this organization has been conducting many national youth summits , campaigns, and programs at regular basis since its establishment. Summary of the Conference: Day 1st First day of the conference was introductory and inaugurated by Program director of Clean Energy Nepal, Sunil Acharya, Former environment minister, Ganesh Thapa and many other representatives from World Vision, Save the Children, Plan Nepal and NYCA. At this day, presentations were made on the science and impact, it's responses and steps forwarded by Nepal in national and international level. Field visit to ICIMOD knowledge park, Godwari was also scheduled same day which was illustrious site to the adaptive measures that can be implemented in order to mitigate the devastating impacts of climate change. Here, fog water harvesting, rain water harvesting, Sloppy Agriculture Land Technology(SALT) , Solar parabolic cooker, 3D farming, vermicomposting, etc were demonstrated. Nepal is the 4th most vulnerable country( Maple report ,2011) with annual increment of temperature 0.006? though it contribute very negligible amount (0.05 %) only in climate change. The dimensions of vulnerabilities include agriculture and food security, water resource and energy, forest and biodiversity and above all the existence of Nepalese. Day 2nd Second day turned very interesting and motivative. It was about introduction to CBA-8, singing for earth, story and art presentation and action plan preparation. This day was dignified by the presence of Dr. Saleemul Huq, one of the lead author of IPCC 3rd report, Mrs. Caroline, Regional Climate Coordinator from Plan International and other representatives from CBA-8. Dr. Huq vouched to address the issue of Kathmandu Declaration in Kathmandu Action Plan. Most of the representatives focused on the role of youths and their capacity to ensure climate justice to upcoming generations. A story , " Mahkali to Bagmati Jalabyau Yatra" by Ganesh Thapa and Niraj Sijapati was really brain hammering. The story related the climate change causes and impacts in Nepal especially presenters what they saw during their journey to Kathmandu with the aim of increasing consciousness on recent hot issue. Many snaps indicating forest fire, deforestation, land pollution, fuel scarcity, irrational use of drinking water, etc are were presented. The story simply was wonderful.Apart from this, competitive action plan preparation by participants was also the energizing session. Here, participants were grouped according to their development regions and each group prepared and presented their action plan to be implemented in their respective regions to address climate change. At a very day, homework was done to prepare "Kathmandu Youth Declaration". Day 3rd This day was the most important and most awaited day of the conference which was dignified by the presence of Christiania Figueres, Executive Secretary of United Nation's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Recalling her childhood and source of inspiration, Figueres energized youths first to bring behavioral changes i.e. to develop sense of responsibility within ourselves and then to inspire others .She also interacted with participants by sharing the experiences related to environment. Another important event of the conference was the preparation and lunch of "Kathmandu Youth Declaration, 2014" which reckoned the agendas of youths empowerment and mobilization from ground level to policy making level, focus on mitigation and adaption measures at local level, encourage research and long term monitoring , inclusion in new constituent assembly, etc. Also, Ugan Manandhar , Program Manager from World Wide Fund for Nature( WWF) Nepal and many representatives from OXFAM and NCCSP discussed on the importance of youths and children on prevailing climate change issue. Afterwards, conference wrapped up through the feedbacks from participants and certificate distribution followed by commitment of organizers along with participants to step forward in mitigation of severity of climate change impacts. Conclusion Three days National Youth Conference on Climate Change was accomplished well. Those days were really energizing and motivative. Such environment concerned programs are utmost in present days from marginalized people to decision making people to combat with the scary impacts on our socioeconomy . Poverty, being a one of the major hindrance in the nation's upliftment, we are not in a condition to afford the expensive mitigative and adaptive measures and thus are going to be trapped in a vicious circle of devastating consequences of climate change and poverty. Being enthusiastic, concerned and thoughtful considerable number of citizen ,here comes a responsibility for all of us to join hands to ensure climate justice to upcoming generations.
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5 Comments
It must have been a great time inspiring the youth to be more knowlegable and more willing to create positive changes in their lives! Thank you so much, I also learned a lot from your report, Ishwora :D
Posted 12-05-2014 18:04
Thank you everyone for your feedback.
Posted 11-05-2014 22:32
Great conference let us all help striking out climate changes
Posted 10-05-2014 18:56
Agreed, we are answerable to the future generations. We must hand over a sustainable planet to them.
Thanks for sharing an interesting report with descriptive pictures.
Seems to be a thoroughly successful conference.
Posted 10-05-2014 14:55
great report indeed, Happy to know that these sort of program are happening in Nepal regularly and the program seems to be really effective and organized.
Posted 10-05-2014 14:05