The much awaited, talked and discussed event of the year COP21 has come and with it comes a wave of hope & fear, hope that finally all the parties will rise to the need of humanity, in light of the evidences of forthcoming catastrophes as predicted by scientists and fear that once again the disagreement of Kyoto, Copenhagen will haunt Paris and thereby jeopardizing our common goals and future. The global leaders have a duty to materialize the climate commitments, laws and policies and the onus is also upon youths like me to share our notions, beliefs and expectations. With that sense of duty I am writing this article.

The fact that we?re heading for a rise of five degrees Celsius, which clearly will cause irreversible, catastrophic global warming and still millions of people are either denying, ignoring or unknown about the climate change is scary. Despite the history of climate negotiations dating back to 1992, despite UNFCC asking countries to take action to avoid dangerous climate change, governments have pandered for far too long, wasted time pointing fingers towards each other. The stubbornness of few industrialized nation clearly didn?t help. This has to come to the end at COP 21.

The geographical and political location of Nepal has put us in the front line of the climate battle. The fact that Nepal ranks 14^th most vulnerable country to climate change worldwide doesn?t come as a surprise. Our mountains are vulnerable to global warming, our glaciers are likely to outburst which will have devastating effects to our communities. These are not mere predictions but real observed facts, Tsho Rolpa has increased from 0.23sq. Km to 1.65 sq. Km Climbers have reported less snow in Mt Everest. These are just a few examples. Not only our rich 118 ecosystem, 75 categories of vegetation, 35 types of forests are at risk but the sectors like Agriculture, Tourism, Energy, Health all are bearing brunt, are sure to get inflicted further. With such small GHGs emission and such huge impacts, this is not fair at all and I urge Nepalese leaders at COP 21 to strongly put forward this contention to ensure we get enough financial help to pursue clean technology, sustainable development and ensure proper adaptive measures.

The harsh truth is Nepal cannot escape climate change as it is located between two rapidly growing economies viz. China and India. China is expected to be the largest GHGs emitter by 2030 and GHGs emission of India has sky rocketed over the years and surely will be on the rise. I ask all the world leaders to understand the plight of Nepal and similar poor vulnerable countries and thus pass laws and plans of actions to guide developing countries to lessen their emissions and subsequently move towards greener economy. Meanwhile we Nepalese need to prioritize adaption to climate change. The National Action Plan on Adaptation (NAPA) is a  praiseworthy move and it needs to be made more comprehensive. The works of Project ICCA and many NGOs/INGOs in capacity building for better management & adaptation, local adaptation plans of actions (LAPA , Monitoring & Evaluation of climate sensors, improving resilience against diseases, pests and insects of crops is commendable. This needs to be amplified and more importantly Green Living in tandem with the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) need to be included in national development agendas.

EU agreeing to cut emissions by 46%, US agreeing to cut emission by 26% and china agreeing its emission peaks at 2030 is a positive sign. I request all global leaders to be generous on the climate funds and indeed establish a global climate fund, large and significant enough to give the much needed pull and catapult human civilization from impending doom. History of climate negotiations has shown this is the most argued part and I request all the leaders to see the picture from the eyes of their grandchildren and capitalize on this historic moment by healthy contribution. I also urge billionaires, multi-national companies, World Bank and many such organization to seize the day and rise to the occasion by sharing the responsibility.

Kyoto Protocol was a remarkable achievement in paper but it failed in implementation I believe chiefly due to its inability to sanction countries who didn?t follow protocol. So, this time agreement has to be powerful enough to sanction even the powerful, rich countries if needed.

Even with the hatred, violence, terrorism present in the world I firmly believe there is enough humanity and sensibility remained in us to save ourselves by saving mother earth. The solidarity shown by people on the aftermath of Paris attack reinstalled my belief and I am sure our leaders will make sure to load our arsenal with enough funds, ideas, vision, diversity, tolerance and solidarity in this war against climate change. 

The post COP 21 is our shared journey in the same boat with the raft still in our hands, let?s keep it that way.

Bon voyage!