Introduction
The purpose of this short presentation is to raise some of the issues that will make CDM and related mechanisms like BOCM more relevant to Nepal. It will raise awareness on Climate Change (CC) issues. It will try to increase our understanding of the CC implications on infrastructure projects and their impact on CC. Understanding of the impacts of infrastructure on climate change will help to reduce anthropogenic CC. Understanding of the implications of climate change will help adapt to CC related disasters and consequences. I will try to explain Nepal’s problems in the evolution of climate change related policies at the outset and suggest for integrating these with the overall development challenges that the country is facing. It will focus on mobilizing additional funds for implementing infrastructure projects from the climate change framework. For this, we need to identify infrastructure projects that will provide additionality and that contribute to sustainable development. Projects should deliver additionality in terms of the reduction in GHG emissions or climate change impacts and help foster sustainable development. Enormous savings will be possible if we make a shift to green development through the implementation of sustainable transport, environmental services and sustainable energy projects. However, I will argue that Nepal should address these from the community or ecosystem perspective. Projects identified in terms of settlement development with sustainable infrastructure projects will help reduce GHG emission markedly. The contribution of such an approach to sustainable development could be immense.
Climate Change and Policy Context
Climate change and global warming due to GHG emission is a global concern. Nepal is no exception to it. Change in the Earth’s climate and its adverse effects are a common and growing concern. Climate change has a growing significance. It is a concrete issue, which is directly related with environment. Adverse weather conditions are not new. Their impacts on communities are historical. They affect the way of life in its totality. They shape cultural and social system. Although Nepal’s contribution to the global pool of GHG emission is very low, she is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The problem is further aggravated due to widespread poverty, landslides, and dependence on rain-fed agriculture.
Nepal shows high potential for sustaining low GHG emissions due to poverty and primitive culture. However, changes in some social and behavioral trends have increased total energy use. Although developed countries are more responsible for the climate change, we are also following their path of development. The outside forces emanated from the operation of the global economy generally lead to the imitation of the high standards. Such standards are based on technologies which even when they are environment-friendly may not match with our needs and culture.
The national policy has underscored the need to maintain balance in natural and cultural environment. The negative environmental and social impacts of uncontrolled housing have been identified as a major challenge. The current Three Year Plan has focused on the development of safe, cost-effective and environment-friendly public developments and housing for the poor. The national goal is to mitigate the adverse effects of human activities and development works through the encouragement of the concept of green development. Failure to meet the increasing demand for infrastructure and services has led to incremental type of projects to ease the crisis. This means initiatives on sustainable development are presently lacking.
Issues and challenges
The normal course of transformation of a primitive economy to a modern one has never been a sustainable one. With ever-increasing shortfall in infrastructure and services, the government is trying to cope with the emerging challenges by any means. This has become a major threat, as crisis management strategies are unlikely to be adequately sustainable. In our case, dwelling units and vehicles are growing in size. Use of electrical equipments is increasing. The consumption of energy is likely to increase due to traffic congestion and poor management. Climate change disasters are increasing. Low-income settlements are located in disaster-prone areas. Poverty and incidence of diseases increase their vulnerability to CC by reducing resilience. People and their activities are responsible for CC. Failure to adapt to and cope with climate change disasters leads to environmental deterioration. These have made infrastructure increasingly deficient and costly. The poor lose the most from the damage of ecosystem goods and services in the context of climate change conditions. Nepal should consider the following while dealing with climate change issues:
Although there are policies related to climate change and green development, these have little influence on the path of development that Nepal is likely to follow because of other more pressing needs.
Being a very poor country, Nepal’s economic prosperity depends on her relationship with her big neighbors, India and China. Despite their spectacular economic growth and perhaps because of this, these countries are facing challenges in promoting green development. This means these countries while helping Nepal in her pursuit for economic development will view Nepal as a convenient place to pass on more polluting activities and goods. This will impair the existing traditional potentials for green development in Nepal. This will influence the evolution of policy as well.
It is difficult to understand and assess the base line trend. As a matter of fact, it is unpredictable due to the dependency on outside economies. With the intrusion, the trend without such projects could be dangerously unsustainable. The recent development that took place in Kathmandu shows this could vary widely. Moreover, policy adjustments are generally initiated whenever new types of projects crop up. However, BOCM initiatives may require major changes in the policy environment. This is because there is no seriousness in CC issues from the government side at present. In this context, it will not be easy to make BOCM projects work. This implies the need for sustaining the policy environment. This will require capacity building for enhancing resilience.
Nepal is a low GHG emitter and likely to remain so for long, given the necessary support to resist the outside influence. Since Nepal is a low emitter, whenever other issues come up, GHG emission becomes a low priority.
Infrastructure projects face problems even when we do not consider environment. There is a lack of understanding that their products should enhance development to ensure funding in a sustainable way only. Service takers will be able to pay for these only when their productivity increases enough due to the consumption of the services. The output of any BOCM project needs to be integrated with the overall sustainable development framework.
The Key Challenges are:
How to provide housing, infrastructure and services to the growing population while reducing per capita GHG emissions?
How to address CC imperatives while coping with growing economic activities?
CDM provides opportunities to Nepal to access global environmental fund for creating carbon sinks or implementing projects that mitigate CC. However, complex procedures and time-consuming negotiations make this not easy. Policy should ensure what we receive from BOCM for being more sustainable will be spent on sustainable ways so that Nepal will have more collaboration in the future. To address the foregoing issues, there should be a policy shift to look at communities and ecosystem. Integration of outside influences is necessary so that after the completion of the projects, unsustainable ways are not revived.
Possible Areas for BOCM Initiatives
Use of land readjustment in the production of housing and infrastructure. Integration of land use planning with transport will help reduce CC.
Compact and mixed-use developments. These have several benefits in terms of GHG emissions:
– Reduced costs for heating and cooling resulting from smaller homes and shared walls in multi-unit dwellings.
– Reduced transmission and distribution loss (system loss) and leakage as well as maintenance costs in the use of energy systems for cooling, heating and power generation.
– Reduced per capita travelled distance in freight deliveries and by private vehicles. Population density increases accessibility to essential service destinations.
Land-use planning and development designs to limit energy use in the expanding areas of existing cities and in new urban areas to reduce environmental load.
Urban development of old areas of the city to encourage densification and mixed-use development to reduce energy use in the city. The experience of Bhaktapur will be relevant,
Renewal of existing housing stock and urban layout and design at a neighborhood scale to reduce energy use in the city.
Strengthening governance system.
Conclusion
Sustainable development is the development that integrates the growth, equity, and environmental dimensions of development through a process of balancing these components with reference to the stage of development of a nation at a particular time through good governance. Given the poverty level, the vision of sustainable development for Nepal is economic growth and prosperity with due consideration to equity and environment to enhance the ability to sustain the economic growth for a longer period. One effective way of addressing this is to focus on CC issues where equity and environment are simultaneously addressed without having to lose anything as regards to economic growth. BOCM should help sustain the sustainable pathways through the transfer of sustainable technologies and products. Integration of the project for using its sustainable products into the sustainable development framework is critical for making impacts. Infrastructure projects should not therefore be viewed in isolation as their sustainability depends largely on the use of their products by the economy as a whole in the contribution towards sustainable development, Creation of sustainable communities and settlements will help identify and implement sustainable infrastructure projects.