Nepal Infrastructure 
KATHMANDU: South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE) in collaboration with The Asia Foundation (TAF) organized a webinar “COP27: Issues, agenda, and expectations” on the eve of the 27th UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) scheduled to be held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt on 6-18 November 2022.
A press release issued by the SAWTEE says that different experts engaged in the areas such as climate change, environmental protection, and environmental economics discussed the issues related to adaptation, climate finance, loss and damage, and the trade-industrial-climate-policy nexus, from the perspective of South Asia, and the way forward
Chairing the session, Ajaya Dixit, Founder of, the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition – Nepal (ISET-N), pointed out that this year’s COP27 will have to address the changing global context with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting energy crisis in Europe.
“At the same time South Asia is facing scorching heat in some places while Pakistan faced devastating floods, making the need to collectively address climate change mitigation and adaptation a pressing issue for our part of the world”, he added.
Dr. Paras Kharel, Executive Director, SAWTEE, noted that devastating floods in Pakistan, aggravated by climate change, have been a grim reminder of the urgency to resolve outstanding issues of adaptation, climate finance, and loss and damage, besides increased ambition on mitigation.
Mr. Manjeet Dhakal, Head of the LDC Support Team and Director, of Climate Analytics South Asia Office, said that although the world is heading to a warming of 2.4°C with 2030 targets and even higher, 2.7°C, with current policies, global advancement in renewable energy, shifting investments, technology breakthroughs, and changing business and market preferences towards renewables give hope.
COP27 is the last opportunity for countries to close the 2030 ambition gap in line with the Paris pledge and COP27 must send a clear signal by mobilizing climate finance for adaptation, resilience, and low carbon transition, and by taking a concrete decision on funding arrangements for loss and damage, he added.
Dr. Nitya Nanda, Director, Council for Social Development, India, called attention to the dilemma faced by the countries in South Asia as the countries still need to ensure economic development and provide adequate clean energy to all while reining in emissions.
Dr. Fahmida Khatun, Executive Director, of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, Bangladesh, pointed out that climate finance and agreements regarding compensation for loss and damage caused by climate change impact need to be settled in COP27.
Dr. Erandathie Pathiraja, Research Fellow, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, Colombo, called attention to the close nexus of climate change and food security citing the example of Sri Lanka which is facing multiple crises compounding into a humanitarian crisis.
Dr. Vaqar Ahmed, Joint Executive Director of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Pakistan also cited the recent devastating floods in Pakistan that caused damages worth USD40 billion.
The webinar is the second of the Civil Society Forum—an initiative by SAWTEE and TAF to discuss and raise awareness on issues of regional interest among civil society organizations working in diverse areas.
