Fight For Climate Justice Goes Unheard

Since last month’s Bhotekoshi disaster that has left behind an unprecedented trail of deaths, disappearances and destruction, deliberations on topics like climate change, climate justice, loss and damage and disaster preparedness have been going on non-stop across public forums.  

Suddenly, a clique not directly affected by the disaster has found something to delve into. 

In the aftermath of the disaster, Prime Minister Balendra Shah addressed the United Nations General Assembly, highlighting Nepal’s core concerns. This is not the only time Nepal has tried to make its voice heard in global platforms with a focus on climate change, enormous challenges that it poses for a multi-disaster hotspot located on a seismic faultzone, and loss and damage. The sad part of the story is that voices raised through Sagarmatha Sambad, the Conference of the Parties and other forums have gone largely unheard. 

Respective positions

Why? The presentations were not powerful enough as the people selected to attend the forums were not competent or prepared enough? How can persons, who have cleared the ultimate test of capability by our measure, the Public Service Commission examinations, be anything but competent? How can ministers that have landed their respective positions by winning hearts and minds through moving speeches perform miserably in such forums? Are these forums mere talk shops for us?

Have we bothered to analyse the reasons behind our chronic poor performance, our innate inability to make both the industrialised and industrialising world feel that climate change and its consequences have been bleeding us dry despite our very nominal carbon footprint, and address this extreme injustice? What a colossal failure of our climate diplomacy? This side note will not dare venture deeper into unsettling questions like these as that is the forte of experts.