En snørklet planlægningsproces forhindrer øremærket finansiering af klimatilpasningstiltag i at nå bestemmelsesstederne i de små lokalsamfund, fortæller Irin News onsdag.
KATHMANDU, 5. september, 2012 (IRIN): “We are so engrossed (begravet) in national processes,” Raju Pandit Chhetri, co-author of a 2011 Oxfam report on climate adaptation finance, told IRIN. “Let us start going to the communities.”
Of 170 countries, Nepal has been ranked by Maplecroft, in its most recent Climate Change Vulnerability Index 2011, as the fourth-most vulnerable to the impact of climate change over the next 30 years.
The country received 1,3 million US dollar in donor aid in 2008 to prepare a NAPA, which was endorsed by the government and submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010.
Of NAPA’s proposed 350 million dollar budget for urgent climate adaptation support, Nepal has secured around 10 million through the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Fund, managed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and less than 25 million dollar from bilateral aid agencies.
“Little funding has come in for projects”
The NAPA document stipulates that 80 percent of all “available financial resources reach the local level to fund on-the-ground adaptation activities.” However, little funding has come in for projects and these projects are not ready for implementation.
“Unfortunately, we are in a stage of preparedness and readiness. We are trying to jump but we have not jumped yet,” said Bharat Pokharel, deputy country programme director for the Swiss development agency, Helvetas.
Funding proposals for NAPA preparation and implementation have to be sent to the GEF through a designated Implementing Agency (IA) – in Nepal’s case the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
According to Batu Uprety, recently retired chief of the Climate Change Management Division at the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MoE), the complex and lengthy procedure to access LDC funds through IAs has resulted in further delays.
UNDP insists, however, that NAPA was finalized within the 18 months allotted (afsat) for the project. The timeline “was agreed with the government”, explained Anupa Rimal Lamichhane, climate change programme analyst at UNDP. “I would not say it was long or short.”
In a July 2012 submission to the UNFCCC, Nepal suggested the GEF “take necessary decisions to encourage its IAs to take a fast-start approach to support LDCs.”
Complicated plans
Læs videre på: http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96242/NEPAL-Bureaucracy-holds-up-climate-adaptation-finance
