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Nepal, Finland to cooperate to reduce climate-induced natural disasters

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HELSINKI, FINLAND: An agreement has been reached between Nepal and Finland to cooperate to reduce the increasing risk of climate-induced natural disasters owing to the effects of climate change. Accordingly, Nepal's Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) and the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) of Finland have agreed to join hands to move forward towards that end. The heads of both organisations expressed their commitment to expanding the ongoing cooperation to make weather forecasting more scientific and factual in the future so as to mitigate the increasing risk of climate-induced disasters. At an event held in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, on Friday, DHM Director General Kamalram Joshi and FMI Director General Jussi Kaurola agreed to expand the cooperation provided by FMI in the fields of weather forecasting and civil aviation while increasing the capacity of DHM in weather forecasting. The two institutes of Nepal and Finland have been collaborating in this field since 2010. At the programme attended by visiting Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Pampha Bhusal, Director General Joshi said that due to climate change the threat of natural hazards including water and climate-induced disasters is increasing in Nepal. Though Nepal has very little contribution to causing climate change, it has to suffer as a result of the activities of industrialised countries. Director General Joshi stressed that the Finnish government's support to Nepal should be expanded to the sub-national level and Nepal's technical capacity should be enhanced through institutional strengthening and more effective research. In response, FMI Director General Kaurola assured that the collaboration between the two agencies will continue in the future including through sharing of experiences to reduce meteorological risks. Since climate change is a common problem of the world, we should help each other and move forward to address it. At the programme, FMI gave detailed information to the high-level study team from Nepal and Vietnam about the weather forecasting activities and weather effects. There was an exchange of experience between senior officials and scientists of FMI on meteorological information system, financial management and cooperation with related organizations. During the study, on Friday, the Nepali team visited Vaisala, the world's largest company that develops, manufactures and markets products and services for environmental and industrial measurement, and urged for facilitation in the availability of weather forecasting tools for Nepal. The study team led by Minister Bhusal comprises Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, Sagar Kumar Rai; Joint Secretary Baburam Bhandari; Senior Meteorologist Suman Kumar Regmi, among others. By RSS READ ALSO: