Low Carbon News in Nepal in June & July 2016
Date: 05/06/2016
Nepal Facing consequences of Carbon emission
Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Ananda Prasad Pokharel, today said the carbon emission from other countries was affecting Nepal.
At a programme held to launch ‘Environmental Law Journal’ to coincide with the World Environment Day by Environmental Development and Conservation Legal Forum, Minister Pokharel said Nepal was forced to bear the brunt of carbon emission of western countries.
The country is taking the toll of the global climate change, the Minister said, stressing the need for continuing the campaigns for environmental conservation.
Source: http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2016-06-05/nepal-facing-consequences-of-carbon-emission.html
Date: 06/06/2016
Building bridges for better cooperation
In light of the growing severity of natural disasters and increasing vulnerability to climate change in South Asia, the European Union Delegation to Nepal hosted a regional conference on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in Kathmandu. The conference was organised in collaboration with IUCN, Centre for South Asian Studies and DAI Europe.
Source: http://www.iucn.org/news/building-bridges-better-cooperation
Date: 18/06/2016
Local Pollutants blamed for Himalayan Climate change
Climate change may be global, but the future of Himalayan mountain glaciers and the Tibetan plateau snowpack could come down to local air pollution, scientists say.
Since the 1960s there has been observational evidence of regional snowpack retreat and black carbon deposition over snow covers, but climate model limitations made quantifying climatic impact difficult.
Adjusted regional climate projections that recognize the impact of black carbon warming effects are crucial to local adaptation planning, Yangyang Xu, post-doctoral fellow at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, tells SciDev.Net.
Date: 24/06/2016
Waterflows decreasing in Nepal Himalayas
A new study forecasts decreasing stream flows and ice volume in the Nepal Himalayas for the remainder of the century with negative consequences for power production, irrigation and food security.
The study, due to be published September in Science of the Total Environment, says stream flows in the Dudh Koshi river basin of Nepal are expected to decline 30 per cent by 2100, while ice volume in the glaciers feeding the river may decline by half during the same period.
Predicting negative impacts on agriculture and hydropower potential in the region, the authors urge authorities to prepare for a future decline in water availability.
“Climate change is already affecting crops in Nepal, and in the Dudh Koshi area, lack of irrigation water will worsen this effect,” says corresponding author Daniele Bocchiola, an associate professor at the Polytechnic University of Milan (PUM).
Source: http://www.scidev.net/south-asia/climate-change/news/water-flows-decreasing-in-nepal-himalayas.html
Date: 27/06/2016
EV’s Market booming in Nepal
Before the embargo in Nepal few months before, the number of consumer of electric vehicle were very few but later due to fuel crisis people started to take EV’s as an alternative means of ride. EV’s were bought in the country long time ago but it wasn’t so satisfactory.
We have seen “Reva” a small electric car in the market since few years. There are some Chinese EV’s in the market but “Reva” a got a special attention of the people especially when the company was taken over by the Mahindra, an India based automobile company. Later, they started manufacturing “E2O” and selling it in Nepali market in collaboration with Agni Energy Pvt. Ltd. E2O is a bigger version of Reva which is pretty much similar to the small hatchback cars in Nepali market.
Initially the market was limited and company was selling 4/5 units of E2O in a month but later during the blockade, it rose up to 12/13 unit per month. These days’ people are taking EV’s as an alternative vehicle. According to company, most of their clients are people who already owns diesel car as their first car and they want to buy electric car as their second car. People are not very confident in buying electric car as their first car in Nepal because of the increase in the load shedding in Nepal which makes the charging time limited.
After government reduced the custom tax of EV’s to 10%, the price is also decreasing which will surely boost the sale of EV’s. Currently the price of E2O is around 25000 USD but after reducing the custom tax the price will come to 21000 USD, which makes the rate even more competitive in the market.
Source: http://kinmel.setopati.com/automobile/36902/
Date: 07/06/2016
Pollution Measuring devices in 56 Stations
While Kathmandu Valley is criticized for being one of the polluted city, Government has decided to install the air quality monitoring stations in different cities of Nepal.
Ministry of Population and Environment in collaboration with Kathmandu Metropolitan City and International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), planned to install 56 monitoring stations around country including Kathmandu. Out of 56, 12 stations would be set up in Kathmandu valley mentioned Mr. Rabiman Shrestha. We are figuring out the places where the stations would be set up. Currently we are selecting 11 stations and there will be one mobile-station.
Stations would be set up in highly polluted area, residential and some outskirts of the valley to gather the information from different zones ranging from polluted to non-polluted area. Other cities which have been considered to install an equipment are Biratnagar, Chitwan, Pokhara, Lumbini and some other as well.
ICIMOD have already installed one in Chitwan last year. According to source, after the setup the finalization of leading responsible agency decision has not yet been made. Rajan Thapa, program coordinator of Clean Energy Nepal mentioned that the setup of stations is not the big achievement but the challenging part is regular maintenance of an equipment and data gathering from them.
According to source, due to lack of coordination between government agencies regarding the responsibilities of agencies, some equipment has been stuck in department of customs since six months.
Currently, six stations where equipment were installed before is not on function. In 2002, Government of Nepal in support of Denmark Government installed stations in Putalisadak, Machhegaun, Patan Hospital, Kirtipur, Bhaktapur Durbar Square and Nagdhunga but currently none of it are working. Increase in loadshedding, lack of finance and continuation of technical support were major reasons for closing down of those previous stations.
Source: http://www.newsofnepal.com/?p=105378