KATHMANDU, Sept 19: As Nepal is extremely vulnerable to climate change, the country is going to conduct a national survey this year to account for the overall impact of climate change.
The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), which conducted a survey of the same nature for the first time in 2016, is preparing to conduct a second survey on a larger scale within the current financial year. Deputy Director General of the CBS, Dr Hemraj Regmi said that this survey will be started after the upcoming election in November and the results of the survey will be published within 100 days after collecting the data.
"This survey can be considered a continuation of the survey conducted in 2016, but this time the damage caused by climatic disasters will be assessed for the first time," said Deputy Director General Regmi. He said that mixed research methods including quantitative and qualitative methods will be used in the survey and the available scientific data will also be reviewed.
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“The survey will include two types of questionnaires - household and community. Also, a discussion will be held with the target group," he said. Regmi said that there will be a survey of seven areas, including five thematic areas recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and two thematic areas determined by Nepal itself. "This survey will be important to assess the impact of climate change on common households and to gather community-level views on this issue," he added.
Similarly, Dipesh Joshi, head of the Climate and Energy Program of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), said that public awareness is also important in the context of the lack of basic scientific data (baseline data) to assess the effects of climate change. Climate change is believed to have caused problems such as the melting of snow, landslides and floods, heavy rains, droughts, famines and floods in Nepal.
Based on these types of survey results, Nepal can advocate effectively at the international forum about climate-related damage, according to Joshi. At the international conference on climate (COP-27) to be held in Egypt next November, underdeveloped countries are preparing to emphasize their demand for the establishment of a separate financial fund to deal with the damage caused by climate disasters.
In the Climate Change Related Indicators Report (Climate Change Related Indicators of Nepal) published by the CBS on Sunday, a total of 260 indicators including seven regions and 32 sub-regions related to climate change have been included. The seven areas related to climate change included in the report are sources and factors of greenhouse gasses, damages and impacts caused by climate extreme events and climate-related disasters, orientation, sensitivity, adaptation capacity and mitigation capacity.
Out of the 260 indicators included in the report, the data related to 150 indicators are currently available while the data related to the remaining 110 indicators are not available. The CBS has prepared to include these indicators in the upcoming reports after collecting them from the relevant ministries and departments.
According to the Paris Agreement, all the participating countries, including Nepal, must submit the work they have done in the field of climate change under their Enhanced Transparency Frameworks from 2024 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) every two years.
Nepal has adopted various policies and programs to address climate change, but there is a lack of necessary data on this issue. Joshi of WWF believed that the report of climate change indicators released on Sunday will help strengthen the report that Nepal will submit to the international forum. "This report will help to collect data and information on climate change and submit the report to UNFCCC," said Joshi.
