Overall NDC Equity Score
Aspiring
Emissions Reductions
Aspiring
The NDC makes a strong effort to create ambitious emissions reduction goals, but lacks strategic impact.
Gender Justice
Aspiring
The NDC makes a strong effort to achieve gender mainstreaming, but lacks the inclusion of the LGBT+ community and gender focused research and data on their impact from climate related vulnerabilities.
Youth Inclusion
Average
The NDC meets basic expectations in youth inclusion, but is still not impactful enough to ensure youth are recognized as agents of change.
Summary
Nepal is a mountainous, landlocked, and least developed country (LDC) contributing very little to the global greenhouse gas (GHGs) emission and faces extreme impacts due to the changing climate. As a result, a majority of Nepal’s NDC rightfully focuses on identifying climate adaptation priorities. Several factors are responsible for making Nepal vulnerable such as challenging topography, poor adaptive capacity, dependence on climate-sensitive areas such as agriculture and tourism as a means of livelihood, lack of technology and technical manpower among others. Similarly, Climate change has a disproportionate impact on women, children, the elderly, the disabled, Indigenous Peoples, and other marginalized and vulnerable people.
Nepal aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emission by 2045. Combined with its recently submitted Long-term Strategy (LTS) for implementing its NDC, Nepal is an example of strong leadership in climate action. Unlike the other countries, transportation is the major source of GHGs emissions, thus, it will become increasingly important for Nepal to electrify cars and other public transportation options.
On gender justice, the NDC identifies gender equality and social inclusion as cross-cutting areas. Gender-responsive climate action is highlighted in the Climate Resilient Planning and Budgeting Guidelines which aim to strengthen the capacities of women and other minorities to adapt to the changing climate. Additionally, there are efforts to support women’s’ access to climate-smart technologies and practices by 2025 and create gender-disaggregated data on climate vulnerability and climate action progress. Nepal also intends to promote gender-specific research at the subnational levels and appoint a gender-specific focal point to keep track of the ongoing processes.
Youths under 40 represent 40.3 percent of the total population in Nepal, however, they have only been identified as a vulnerable group. Young people possess the energy, skills, innovative and creative ideas that can be nurtured through their meaningful engagement and participation, thus, their inclusion is critical for the future NDC.
Overall, though acknowledged as key stakeholders to support shaping and implementing Nepal’s climate goals, neither the NDC nor the LTS identify specific actions, indicators, or pathways for the strong inclusion of women, girls, and young people.
Highlights
- Commits to carbon neutrality by 2045, combined with a long-term implementation strategy.
- Identified gender, youth, and civil society inclusion as a cross-cutting element of NDC implementation.
- Identifies women and young people as vulnerable groups to climate change.
- Mentions that all 753 local governments will prepare and implement climate-resilient and gender-responsive adaptation plans by 2030.
- Commits to build the capacity and engage women and young people in climate change-related work.
Lowlights
- Fails to provide clear indicators of vulnerability to climate change among women and young people.
- Lacks indication of the inclusion of women and young people in the development of the NDC.
- Unambitious on energy sector transition.
- Fails to include tools for strengthening public transportation access and infrastructure essential for reducing emissions from the transportation sector.
Key Recommendations
This analysis found that Nepals’ NDC emphasizes the importance of youth inclusion and gender-responsive climate action. On gender, there are clear commitments to increase gender-related data, appoint a gender focal point, and access to green technology for women.
For both gender and youth inclusion, the NDC would benefit from stronger efforts to highlight specific metrics or plans for their sustained inclusion. The following are key recommendations for the improvement of future NDCs and other national climate plans:
For Gender Justice
- Identify key indicators of gender-responsive climate action.
- Create a clear engagement strategy for centering the needs of women and girls.
- Create programs to build the capacity of women to engage in climate-related sectors and decision-making spaces.
For Youth Inclusion
- Collaborate with and mobilize young people and climate organizations to continue to get engaged in NDC enhancement processes and other climate-related activities.
- Urgently scale-up and accelerate investments for child- and youth-responsive adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and mitigation measures.
- Designate a youth focal point in the Ministry of Forest and Environment to represent young people and design meaningful inclusion processes.
- Add a dedicated section on children and youth in NDC.