Preparations for the first edition of 'Sagarmatha Samvad', which was announced five years ago and stopped due to Covid, are accelerating. Nepal has put forward the concept of Everest Dialogue as an international forum to discuss national and international issues.

Maheshwar Dhakal, joint secretary of the Ministry of Forests and Environment and a member of the secretary-level committee of Everest Dialogue, said that the three bodies of the government, the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Forests and Environment, are coordinating it. Dhakal says, "We are working together on the concept of a three-body eco-system."

Three committees have been formed for Everest Dialogue 2025. In which there are director, manager and secretary-level committee . "The steering committee guides and directs the other two committees politically," he said about the work of the committee. This is the most powerful body of the committee.' He said that the secretary-level committee will implement the decisions from these two committees.

Who is in the committee?

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is the chairman of the high-ranking board of directors. The steering committee has 11 members and one member secretary. The members include Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel, Foreign Minister Arju Rana Deuba, Forest and Environment Minister Ain Bahadur Shahi Thakuri and State Minister Rupa Vick, National Planning Commission Vice Chairman Shivraj Adhikari, Chief Secretary to the Government Ek Narayan Aryal, Chief Advisor to the Prime Minister and Cabinet Office Bishnu Prasad Rimal, Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister and Cabinet Office Yuvraj Khatiwada, President of Nepal Federation of Commerce and Industry Chanda Prasad Dhakal, President of Nepal Confederation of Industries Rajesh Kumar Agarwal and The president of the Chamber of Commerce is Kamlesh Kumar Aggarwal.

Similarly, Rajkumar Shrestha, Secretary of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers Office, is the member secretary. Foreign Minister Rana is the chairman of the management committee, Forest Minister Thakuri is the vice chairman, Chief Secretary Aryal is the member and Shrestha is the secretary of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Office. Similarly, the members are Foreign Ministry Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai, Finance Ministry Secretary Ghanshyam Upadhyay, National Planning Commission Secretary Madhukumar Marasini, Home Ministry Secretary Gokarnamani Duwadi, Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Ministry Secretary Vinod Prakash Singh, Alternative Energy Promotion Center Executive Director Navraj Dhakal and National Nature Conservation Fund Member-Secretary Naresh Subedi. Secretary of the Ministry of Forest and Environment Deepak Kumar Kharal is the member secretary of this committee.

Similarly, the secretary-level committee is chaired by Shrestha, secretary of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Office, Kharal, secretary of the Ministry of Forests and Environment, and Raj Ghimire and Dadiram Bhandari, joint secretaries of the government of Nepal, and two deputy secretaries, Prakash Singh Thapa and Deepak Adhikari, are members.

Nepal invites 450 foreign guests 

It is said that 450 foreign guests from different countries have been invited to participate in the first edition of 'Sagarmatha Samvad 2025' which is going to be organized by the Nepal government. Secretary Dhakal said that the government has invited the head of state, head of government, foreign minister, forest minister and experts for the summit dialogue to be held in Kathmandu on May 2, 3 and 4, 2081.

The Sagarmatha Dialogue, which was supposed to be held in 2076, was stopped at the final stage. During the Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's time in 2076 too, preparations were made to organize the Everest Dialogue. But due to covid-19, the program had to be stopped in the midst of all the preparations. 

Prime Minister Oli announced the Everest Dialogue in the presence of ambassadors of various countries, ambassadors of international delegations, concerned agencies and climate change experts on the occasion of the International Hiu Day announced by the United Nations. Not only that, he also requested international delegations to participate in it.

"We want to bring to the international community the impact of climate change on the Himalayas, the impact it has on the lives of the Nepalese community, especially the Himalayan community," Dhakal said. Why is

being organized?

Why is Nepal organizing the dialogue that was stopped five years ago? In reply  Member-Secretary Dhakal says, "This dialogue is being organized to show the problems caused by the water rising to the sea level through landslides and flooding from the mountains when the snow melts in Nepal." He said that the

dialogue will include all the aspects that the Nepalese society has experienced due to climate change. Dhakal says that while there is a lot of potential in hydropower in Nepal, how to benefit from it, climate change issues, how to increase technology, global partnership and regional cooperation, the Everest Dialogue is going to be established. He added, "Since climate change is a global agenda, the purpose of the dialogue is how to work together."

Budget 1 crore

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Forestry and Environment have allocated Rs. The private sector and international development partners also want to participate in this," said Dhakal, member-secretary, "if the development partners want to help, we are ready to cooperate. But the government of Nepal is ready to bear all the expenses alone.'

What are the issues that Nepal will raise in the Everest dialogue?

In the first edition, Nepal is organizing a dialogue based on the main topic of 'climate change, mountains and the future of humanity'. For this purpose, 12 sessions and three plenary sessions have been arranged in 5 themes . On the first day of the

dialogue, there will be six different sessions based on two themes. These include 'Beyond Mountains: Connecting Mountains to Oceans' and 'Green Economy'. On the first day, on May 2nd, there is a plenary session on "Ecosystem Services: Recognition, Honors and Awards".

Likewise, on the second day of the dialogue, there will be six sessions on the themes of 'Preventing, reducing and addressing harm', 'Climate justice and the future of humanity' and 'Global and regional partnerships'. It will have two plenary sessions on 'Climate Induced Disasters: Anticipatory Early Action and Resilience' and 'New Climate and Carbon Finance'. On the last day, there is a program to announce the 'Sagarmata Dialogue'.

What we are trying to connect through this dialogue is that Nepali society has grown up in the Eastern religious and cultural civilization. We have lived in different communities and religions and we have lived together that way . There is concern that the cultural feelings of yesterday will be fragmented due to climate change, he says, such as: "Climate change has created risks in the mountainous region". The Thame landslide in Nepal and the flood in Kathmandu are gone. The people there had to migrate. There was a situation where they had to leave the religion and culture that they were adopting. We want to save that humanity.' 

He said that he wanted to convey the message that Nepal is beautiful and livable through this dialogue. Also, this dialogue tried to convey the message that Nepal is leading the issue of Himalayas at the international level and that Nepal can lead in the future as well. Member-Secretary  Dhakal said. Who is participating in the

dialogue?

The government of Nepal has invited countries that are affected by mountain, climate change and are close to the issue of Nepal for the Everest Dialogue. Some have already accepted and some are left. As this is the highest priority of the Nepalese government, we are working diligently,' he says, 'we are trying to bring more and more foreign guests who are connected with climate change and are interconnected with Nepal.'

is trying to move forward inclusively by including not only the government of Nepal but also organizations working on climate change at the international level through the Sagarmatha Dialogue. According to Secretary Dhakal, a member of the secretary-level committee, youth, private sector and civil society as well as international researchers should be part of the Everest dialogue. He added, "It will be led by the government of Nepal". Others will have a place to play a role in it.'

Former ambassador Dinesh Bhattarai has said that the Everest dialogue can be established as a forum to keep national interests strong. He also said that since the dialogue is going to be held after a long time, it should be well prepared and the message that Nepal wants to give should be clear. It is a good thing that this dialogue has been organized. We should be clear about what we want to convey,' said former ambassador Bhattarai, 'in this, we should also talk about foreign policy. As the first version of the dialogue is focused on climate change, he suggests that he should be able to create a good commentary in front of the international community.

'Our leaders keep talking outside . It can be established as a good forum if uniformity can be given,' he added, 'to make it effective, it depends on who the government invites.' This is the first dialogue . We were able to invite the same kind of guests to tell our story and it would be good if we could make them appear.'  He said that since there is an opportunity to show the face of the nation, it is enough to hold a dialogue in a way that there is no waste in the organization of the dialogue and that the resources are not wasted.

Opportunity to invest in Nepal's climate change sector 

Climate and disaster expert Dharmaraj Upreti has said that Sagarmatha Samvad is an opportunity for Nepal to invest in the field of climate change. Nepal is more affected by climate change than other countries and through this dialogue, a suitable means of understanding the opinion of the international community  He said it will happen. "Now what we are trying to bring from this dialogue is that Nepal is at risk of climate change," he said.

Similarly, with Donald Trump becoming the president in America, he has stopped the assistance provided to Nepal through USAID. Not only that, he has also stopped the provision for developing countries affected by climate change. In response to the question of what will happen next, Upreti says, "Just because a party withdraws from it, the Paris Agreement and the support available for climate change will not stop." Recently, Canada has announced a big investment for Bangladesh . Similarly, the European Union and Germany have also announced the situation. How will Nepal benefit from that? What is our risk? What are our areas of investment? We are trying to get the opinion of the international community through the Everest dialogue.

Even if the US decided to withdraw from the decision, there are developed countries and it will take another year for the implementation of the decision of the US. "According to the UNICEF agreement, it will take a full year to get out of that treaty." It will be implemented only from the year 2026, when it will be implemented outside the US," he said, "In the current context, many countries like Nepal were implementing climate adaptation programs. For that, financial support was needed.'