Finance Minister Sharma emphasizes importance of protecting mountains

KATHMANDU: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has said if the mountains are protected the water supply to 1.5 billion people of the world will be guaranteed. Minister Sharma mentioned this on the behalf of the Government of Nepal at the ministers' meeting of the Asia-Pacific region held in South Korea on Wednesday. The special meeting of ministers of the Asia-Pacific Region was held under the second Green Climate Fund (GCF) global programming conference. Minister Sharma said the Government of Nepal has allocated Rs 100 billion keeping in mind the necessity of green energy in the current fiscal year 2022/23. The investors in the private sector are also following this step, he added. He underscored the importance of international cooperation in the effective minimisation of climate change, and mobilisation of private sector's investment. He said that Nepal's commercial banks have also been calling for partnership with GCF and expressed his belief that those will be fulfilled so that the private sector could invest after identifying green projects. He further said, "We have planned a public-private investment of $45 billion on climate change by the year 2030, for which international support is needed. The industrial sector has drastically reduced the use of fossil fuels as a source of energy, he infomred and opined that developing economies need to reduce the use of fossil fuels to protect the environment. "Countries that do not play role in increasing global temperature have to suffer from the problems caused by global warming," he said and opined, "To minimise the climate change there should be support as a grant rather than loan. He said, a study shows that Nepal has capacity to produce ammonia and hydrogen which reduce carbon emissions. He added that Nepal could also provide such chemical compound to the developed countries while the latters could invest in such projects in Nepal. will provide important support to major countries to participate in the program of developed countries in which carbon emissions can be made available to combine green energy and hydrogen production.