Cabinet Meeting at the foothills of Mount Everest

Just forefront of United Nations Climate Change talks in Copenhagen, Nepal government has now set to hold a cabinet meet at the shadow of highest mountain in the world, Mt Everest, on December 4th, Friday. The cabinet meeting will be held at the foothills of the 8,848-meter tall peak to draw the attention of the world community towards impact of climate change in the Himalayas.

The meeting will be attended by twenty-six ministers at Kala Patthar which is at an altitude of 17, 192 feet in the Everest Region.

Bishnu Rijal, press advisor to PM Madhav Kumar Nepal said, “We’re going to host a ministerial level cabinet meeting on Friday, December 4 at Kala Patthar to draw the attention of the whole world to the effects of global warming on the Himalayas.”

“Our glaciers are melting and glacial lakes are multiplying and are on the verge of overflowing which will create a Himalayan tsunami. Even though Nepal does not contribute to global warming, it is highly vulnerable,” he said.

The ministers accompanied with government staffs are scheduled to reach Lukla on December 3rd. All of them will be flown to Kala Patthar on four helicopters for the meeting on December 4th. The meeting is said to be attended by over 70 people including prime minister, ministers, and journalists along with doctors for emergency services. Nepal’s Prime Minister, Madav Kumar Nepal will give a three minute long speech on the climate change and its effects.

“After the meeting a press conference will be held at Syanboche which is at an altitude of 52300, “Forest and Soil Conservation Minister Deepak Bohora informed.

“The cabinet meeting as well as the press conference after the meeting will be broadcasted live via Nepal Television. Other international Medias like CNN, BBC, Al Zazeera has shown interest for its live telecast. Even different foreign affairs executives have also shown interest to take part in this historic event,” Minister Bohora informed during the press conference held in Kathmandu on November 29th.

Officials said the 20-minute long meeting will take decision on climate change. The meeting, along with other issues to discuss has its agenda to declare the area located between the Everest and Langtang which is prosperous in biodiversity and is spread over 2,035 sq km as conversation area. The meeting will give back support for the Summiteers’ Summit to ‘Save the Himalaya Campaign’ scheduled for December 11 in Copenhagen.

Our motive is to draw the attention of global leaders to commit and work towards lowering the greenhouse gas emissions and also provide compensation mechanisms to vulnerable countries like us,” said Rijal.
“The Western countries should also think about defensive measures for country like ours where people live under the constant threat of climate change,” he said.

Climate change has hit the Himalayas in general and Nepal in particular. Around 1.3 billion people depend on the water that flows from the Himalayan glaciers, which are melting at a frightening rate, hostile to bring floods and later drought to some south Asian countries.
The UN Climate Change Conference aimed at setting targets to restrain greenhouse gases responsible for global warming will take place from December 7 to18 in Copenhagen of Denmark.