KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 7Nepali Ambassador to the UK, Gyan Chandra Acharya, has appreciated the British support and cooperation in various sectors of Nepal, including climate change and biodiversity conservation. 6 young climate activists take European governments to court over climate change Food prices are rising as countries limit exports.

Blame climate change, El Nino and Russia's war Addressing a climate-focused panel discussion to mark the centenary of the signing of the 1923 Nepal-UK Treaty of Friendship at Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh on October 5, Ambassador Acharya highlighted the significance of the 1923 Friendship treaty in biodiversity conservation and climate change effects in Nepal.

He also mentioned the special collaboration between the RBGE and Nepali institutions on research, capacity building, conservation and development in recent times.

Information on this was shared by Nepali Embassy in the UK via a press release.The Embassy of Nepal and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, in collaboration with the RBGE and the British Council, had jointly organised the panel discussion and reception.

On the occasion, Ambassador Acharya also touched upon the ambition of Nepal with regard to the net zero emission and the sectoral strategy, while also highlighting the high climate vulnerability of Nepal, including the impacts of melting of glaciers and other climate-induced disasters. Mentioning RBGE's collaboration in Nepal's biodiversity conservation under different projects, Regius Keeper of the RBGE, Simon Milne stated that Nepal and RBGE's association was an excellent example of productive, meaningful and warm collaboration which was initiated more than 200 years ago by a Scotsman, Francis Buchanan-Hamilton who made the first scientific botanical collections from Nepal.Similarly, Deputy Director of FCDO Charlotte Coles, in her remarks, stated that the historical bonds of friendship between the two countries had been further deepened with the enhanced bilateral engagement between the two countries and highlighted UK's support in climate change and biodiversity conservation of Nepal.

She also assured UK's continuous cooperation to Nepal's socioeconomic development in the days ahead.A climate-focused panel discussion was held in the second part.

The panelists, including Dr Mark Watson, Scientist at RBGE, Prof Hugh Sinclair from the University of Edinburgh, Dr Inge Panneels from Edinburgh Napier University and Ambassador Acharya spoke on biodiversity, geology, impact on the economy and national efforts and international cooperation respectively.The discussions included the impacts of climate change on various sectors in Nepal over the last 100 years with particular focus on biodiversity, economy, geology and prospective impacts in future.

They also discussed the national efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change and the need for a comprehensive, substantive and multistakeholder international collaboration and support to tackle them in an effective manner.The programme was attended by climate experts, British friends of Nepal, local diplomatic community, members of Nepali community and representatives of academic institutions, the press release stated.A version of this article appears in the print on October 8, 2023, of The Himalayan Times .

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