Sagarmatha Sambaad: Who All Are Arriving, What Are the Agendas?

With barely three days remaining for the Sagarmatha Sambaad (May 16-18), Nepal’s global initiative to raise concerns about the debilitating effects of climate change on the Himalayas and beyond, Devendra Gautam of Nepal Verified News had a conversation with Prakash Singh Thapa, an executive member of the Sagarmatha Sambaad Secretariat.

Excerpts:  

A unique landscape and demography
 

With a width of barely 200 km, Nepal constitutes a unique landmass ranging from the world’s highest point (the peak of the 8848.86-meter Sagarmatha) to its shallowest point that is around 50 meters above the sea level, offering unique biodiversity and demography consisting of more than 126 ethnic communities.   
Despite a nominal carbon footprint, Nepal has been bearing the most serious brunt of climate change for long. Studies and lived experiences have shown that the most serious impact of climate change is on the Himalayas. Barely a year ago, the settlement of Thame in Solukhumbu district —which is home to the Sagarmatha and other mountains —experienced a massive glacial lake outburst flood that almost wiped off the settlement. In the lowlands of Dodhara and Chandani in Kanchanpur district, records rainfall measuring 600mm occurred last year. 

Disasters like these, resulting from climate change, have been affecting Nepal, disrupting livelihoods and causing massive losses. But we did not have a global forum of our own to draw the attention of the global community to raise these concerns on our own and through influential leaders, climate scientists and experts from around the world.

This gave birth to Sagarmatha Sambaad, named after the world’s highest peak, after a little bit of delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The fact that the Prime Minister himself leads this global dialogue with representations from different relevant ministries shows how important the forum is. The idea is also to make sure that the participants realize that they are close to the world’s highest mountain, that has been experiencing the severest blow of climate change, along with other Himalayas in the Hindu Kush region.

The first edition of Nepal’s first global dialogue on climate change is aptly themed 'Climate Change, Mountains and the Future of Humanity'.  We plan to hold Sagarmatha Sambaad every two years, with topics based on evolving regional and global scenarios.     

Topics for discussion

As mentioned earlier, Nepal has been bearing disproportionate effects of climate change despite a very small carbon footprint, despite its important role in nature conservation—the conservation of forests, the mountains and the Himalayas, etc.

Against this backdrop, climate justice will be a topic for discussion. Loss and damage will be another topic that will come up. The forum will discuss ways to avoid loss and damage resulting from climate disasters, and reparations in the event of occurrence of such disasters. 
Nepal’s forests play a key role in sequestering carbon, so carbon financing will be another agenda.

The impact of climate change from the highlands to the islands will be another topic that the participants will delve into.

Toxic air resulting from increasing emissions from the neighborhood and beyond have been triggering snow melting and turning the Himalayas into giant black rocks. 
Recently, air pollution went up alarmingly in Kathmandu and Pokhara, thanks to this toxic air. A worsening air pollution scenario will also feature in the discussions.

By conserving the Hills, the Himalayas and the forests, Nepal has been supplying freshwater to lower riparian countries. We will be demanding some sort of recognition for our contribution to a (billion-plus) humanity living downstream and this will be also be a topic for discussion.

Studies and lived experiences have shown that children, women, senior citizens and differently-abled people suffer the most from climate change. The dialogue will also hold a discussion on this important topic on the sidelines.

Mountain flights

We are arranging mountain flights to enable the guests to witness (almost) firsthand the impact of climate change on the Himalayas. Our focus is on providing them seats by the windows. Also, we will be organizing ecological tours to highlight our conservation efforts to a global audience.          

Who all are arriving?

In a matter of four months, our team of very competent professionals is almost ready for the global dialogue. Around 2300 delegates from more than 50 countries will be arriving at the summit, some of them have already arrived. They include diplomats, climate scientists and experts, government leaders, etc. 

Among the participants is the president of COP-29 held in Azerbaijan, Mukhtar Babayev (Minister for Ecology and Natural Resources). 

We are expecting high-profile representations from our two neighboring countries also.

Logistics

Upon arrival at the airport, we have arrangements in place to transport the guests to designated hotels and hotels of their own choosing, designating officers based on respective protocols. It will be great to lodge guests at one facility on account of logistics, but the guests are free to choose their respective accommodations. The idea is to give the international guests a feel of Nepali hospitality.