Nepal, located in the Himalayas between India and China, is a mountainous country featuring many of the world’s highest peaks, including Mount Everest (8,848 meters [m]). Subsistence agriculture constitutes a mainstay of Nepal’s economy and employs 69 percent of the country’s workforce (as of 2015). Key drivers of risk in Nepal include its high exposure to floods, droughts, and lack of coping capacity. The largest source of the country’s exposure risk is linked to earthquakes. With climate change causing more precipitation and higher temperatures that will affect terrain stability, an earthquake would likely trigger mudflows, avalanches, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), and landslides, thus compounding damages.
INVESTING IN NEPAL
CIF's investment in Nepal is through it's Pilot Program for Climate Resilience, Scaling Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries Program and Forest Investment Program. Building on national development priorities, Nepal’s strategic program for climate resilience is delivering $74 million in PPCR grants and concessional financing to support mainstreaming climate change into development plans and practices, as well as key investments in target areas. These include enhancing the resilience of watersheds in mountainous regions and reducing the vulnerability of communities and ecosystems to climate-related hazards, particularly through private sector engagement.
Nepal is also participating in the SREP, with an investment plan for $48 million to support a variety of renewable energy initiatives. They include a large-scale biogas program, public private partnerships for on-grid solar power development, and mini-grid solar or solar/wind hybrid systems to bring electricity to isolated communities.
Nepal's FIP Investment Plan, for an indicative allocation of $28 million, has an overall goal of strengthening the resilience of forest ecosystems. It will focus in the area of forest sector governance and capacity development for key stakeholder groups and institutions including IPs, local communities and other forest dependent poor.
Through the CIF-TAF, over $740,000 was programmed for technical assistance activities in 2021. The efforts range across supporting the national transition to green, inclusive and climate resilient development, and provision of climate financing for local financial institutions.
