The upcoming Sagarmatha Sambaad will serve as a platform to spotlight the climate crisis affecting mountainous communities, according to Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amrit Bahadur Rai.

Nepal will host the multi-stakeholder dialogue from May 16 to 18 in Kathmandu, aiming to bring global attention to the challenges faced by people living in high-altitude regions due to climate change.

Speaking at a pre-event organized by the People's Forum in Lalitpur, Secretary Rai emphasized that the growing climate crisis poses a serious threat to mountain civilizations. He noted that mountain communities have often been excluded from global climate negotiations and stressed that Sagarmatha Sambaad aims to address this gap.

“The Paris Agreement failed to recognize mountain-specific issues,” Rai said. “Through Sagarmatha Sambaad, we will amplify the voices of mountain communities.”

Thakur Bhandari, Chairperson of the Federation of Community Forestry Users Nepal (FECOFUN), called for allocating 80 percent of the Climate Resilience Fund to local levels. He urged the government to highlight the contributions of community forests to environmental protection and the impact of climate change on forest-dependent people during the dialogue.

Arjun Bhattarai, President of the NGO Federation Nepal, stressed the importance of ensuring that all relevant stakeholders are included in the Sagarmatha Sambaad agenda.

The People's Forum, which includes representatives from civil society, human rights groups, children, people with disabilities, indigenous and marginalized communities, mountain residents, and people from low-lying areas, organized the event.

The gathering called for climate justice through the fair distribution of resources, equitable access to land, forests, and water, and the empowerment of local communities to manage these resources sustainably. It also emphasized the need to strengthen community resilience to the impacts of climate change. -- RSS