‘Promises into Action’: Nepal Urges Dedicated Mountain Climate Programme at COP31

Nepal has called on the international community to translate expressions of sympathy over climate disasters into concrete action, urging stronger global cooperation and dedicated climate financing for vulnerable mountain regions.

Addressing the opening plenary of the 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said, “After the disaster, we received an outpouring of sympathy. This is the time to put sympathy into the system, promises into action.”

Leading Nepal’s delegation at the conference in Antalya, Türkiye, Khanal highlighted the unprecedented impacts of recent climate-induced disasters on lives, livelihoods and ecological systems.

He stressed the urgent need for a dedicated work programme on Mountain and Climate Change under the COP31 process.

The Foreign Minister also called for global solidarity and effective multilateral cooperation to keep the 1.5-degree Celsius temperature goal alive.

He urged the integration of mountain-specific indicators into the Global Goal on Adaptation framework and adequate financing under the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance.

Khanal further highlighted the need to safeguard fragile mountain ecosystems, whose degradation has far-reaching consequences for around 15 per cent of the global population.

He also drew attention to the cascading impacts of climate change, from the Sagarmatha mountains to the sea, and called for international support to help Nepal rebuild better, faster and more equitably.