The report titled ‘Nepal’s Citizen Climate Budget: Where is Nepal’s money being allocated?’, jointly prepared by Freedom Forum and United Nation’s Development Programme (UNDP), made an assessment of climate-related spending made by the Ministry of Finance and other government agencies of Nepal.

According to the report, the country’s investment on climate-related developmental activities has grown seven-fold in the last five years.

It concluded that the Nepali Government has allocated 30 percent (nearly Rs 393.33 billion) of the annual budget (of FY 2017-18) for activities related to climate change. This is an upward trend for a country like Nepal that is highly vulnerable to climate change, it noted.

According to Krishna Sapkota, Freedom Forum’s official and a key researcher behind the study, the increased allocation, along with climate-related activity, also reflects spending on reconstruction activity and disbursement to local bodies towards development activities.

The country is likely to increase related investment in the coming years to address climate risks in view of the region’s high vulnerability to climate change, says Sujala Pant of UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub.

According to Vijaya Singh of UNDP Nepal, the report on climate-relevant budget has covered every sector and has also shown that the progress made on addressing climate change contributed to the overall Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Nepal.

The report aimed at providing investment trend and insights to the Nepal public on how the national budget is being spent on climate change tackling measures.

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