Realising the scientific evidence on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities, the United Nations General Assembly established the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) in 1990 to prepare an international instrument on climate change. The INC drafted the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which was adopted on 9 May 1992 at the UN Headquarters in New York. The UNFCCC - a global treaty - provides the international framework for managing climate change. The Convention has the ultimate objective of achieving stabilisation of GHG concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system; and of achieving such a level within a time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner. In addition to the treaty: the Kyoto Protocol was adopted on 11 December 1997 during the 3rd session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in Japan. The Protocol, which has more powerful and legally binding measures, has entered into force on 16 February 2005.

The Convention also specifies that developed countries are committed to helping ?particularly vulnerable? developing countries meet the costs of adaptation. The seventh session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP7) held at Marrakech in 2001 established new funds relevant for adaptation, including the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) under the Convention to support the 49 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to adapt to climate change. The LDCF has been used initially to support the preparation of National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs). The NAPA provides a process for LDCs to identify, communicate and respond to their most ?urgent and immediate? adaptation needs, and prioritise those needs. The fund provided approximately USD 200,000 to each LDC to develop their NAPAs. NAPA preparation is a pre-requisite for accessing funding from the Convention?s financial mechanism.

The purpose of NAPA is to serve as a simplified and direct channel of communication for information relating to the urgent and immediate adaptation needs of the LDCs. Activities proposed through NAPAs would be those whose further delay could increase vulnerability, or lead to increased costs at a later stage. The approach of preparing NAPA is to be country-driven, and complementary with existing plans and programmes related to development and climate change. The NAPA document specifies a list of priority project activities, based on a set of criteria. The NAPA document will not be an end in itself, but rather a means for the dissemination, by an LDC Party, of its proposed programme of action to address its urgent needs for adaptation. The priority activities identified through the NAPA process will be made available to the entity that will operate the LDC fund, and also other sources of funding, for the provision of financial resources to implement these activities.

The NAPA guidelines suggest to: (i) synthesise information; (ii) conduct a participatory assessment of vulnerability to current variability and extreme events and of areas where risks would increase because of climate change; (iii) identify key adaptation measures; (iv) identity and prioritise country-driven criteria for selecting priority activities; and (v) select prioritised short list of activities and projects to address urgent and immediate adaptation needs. In addition, the proposals for priority activities should be developed through a consultative process.

Nepal is highly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. Rises in temperature related to global warming are associated with changes to rainfall patterns (such as less frequent but more intense rainfall events), increasing frequency and intensity of floods, changes in monsoon on- and offset, longer dry spells and drought events, increasing storms, and a growing threat from Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF). These climate induced hazards are not only causing damage and loss of human lives and property; they also undermine development progress in Nepal and put the achievement of the Millennium Development goals (MDGs) at risk.

Nepal participated in the meetings of the UNFCCC and signed the Convention on 12 June 1992 during the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit. Nepal deposited the instrument of ratification of the Convention to its Depository on 2 May 1994 and has entered into force in Nepal on 31 July 1994. In addition, Nepal accessed the Kyoto Protocol on 16 September 2005 and has entered into force on 14 December 2005. In order to promote and facilitate the activities related to the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in Nepal in the spirit of the Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol, the Government of Nepal has assigned the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MoEST) to function as the Designated National Authority (DNA).

For Nepal, since greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are negligible on a global scale, there is no significant comparative advantage in responding to climate change issues through intensified mitigation approaches. Nepal cannot escape from the consequences of climate change and has recognized the need to take concrete steps to adapt to its adverse effects. Therefore, the development of a National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) to climate change has been recognized as an important priority and a starting point for vulnerability reduction in climate sensitive sectors and sub-regions. Nepal, being a LDC Party to the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, has to prepare NAPA to access funding for adaptation programmes. The MoEST and UNDP Country Office Nepal entered into an agreement in mid-November 2008 for the preparation of NAPA, which has also received additional donor support.

Given that many other LDCs have already completed their NAPA, Nepal is in the advantageous position of being able to learn from the experiences of others. These have demonstrated the need to consider how the NAPA process can be used strategically to create a sustainable framework for national climate change action, which can result in swift and well-coordinated follow-up to the NAPA priorities identified. At the same time, the Government of Nepal has initiated a number of concurrent activities on climate change. The Government of Nepal is therefore using the NAPA to provide a basis for the development of a multi-stakeholder Framework on Climate Change Action, ensuring that the NAPA-related stakeholder processes are institutionalised and backed up by dedicated knowledge management and learning platform. In this way, the NAPA will form the basis of, and support for, a wider strategy for climate resilient, low carbon development, with which other climate change processes in Nepal can be aligned.

The NAPA Project promotes a wider process, which combines the NAPA with broader support and knowledge infrastructure to ensure its sustainability and related climate change activities. This wider programme of work is supported with co-financing from DFID and DANIDA.

The NAPA has three components:
Component 1: Preparation and dissemination of a NAPA document
Component 2: Development and maintenance of a Climate Change Knowledge Management and Learning Platform for Nepal; and
Component 3: Development of a multi-stakeholder Framework of Action for Climate Change in Nepal.

The NAPA process will identify well defined short-term and long-term priorities for climate change action in Nepal. It will create and enhance awareness of climate change adaptation issues at different scales and build long-term capacity through cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder coordination. The Project will also form the basis of a critical pathway for climate change action in Nepal, opening avenues for mainstreaming climate change adaptation into development planning.

The NAPA Project has the provisions for the formation of: (i) Advisory Board (AB); (ii) Project Executive Board (PEB); (iii) Technical Advisory Committee (TAC); and (iv) Project Team. In order to provide guidance and ensure coordination, an Advisory Board shall be constituted by ensuring representation from the concerned government organisations, donor community, academia, civil society/NGO, private sector, local bodies and IPCC focal point under the chairmanship of the Secretary of MoEST. The Project Executive Board is composed of Project Executive, Senior Beneficiaries (representative of the NPCS, and the civil society) and Senior Suppliers (representatives of the DANIDA, DfID and UNDP).

The envisioned TAC will function as a consortium of experts in the areas of climate change, disaster risk management, environmental conservation and socio-economic impact evaluation and will provide technical advice to the PEB and the AB as and when necessary.

The Project team shall consist of Project Executive, Project Manager, consultants, Programme Officer, and Technical Officer. The Project team will be supported by admin/finance associate. The Project will be implemented through multi-stakeholder consultations, field investigations, meetings, workshops, and seminars. The Project will consult widely with key stakeholders particularly the national, regional and grassroot level organization including civil society, private sectors, academic institutions, vulnerable groups and communities. The NAPA Project will engage key players from the concerned ministries from the very beginning, to ensure that a greater understanding of the relationship between national planning processes and NAPAs can be achieved.

The NAPA component 1 will be implemented by following the procedures specified in the NAPA preparation guidelines, adopted by the COP at its seventh session. The document will be prepared with a rigorous country-driven consultative approach with a number of consultations, field investigations and workshops. Beside the formulation of NAPA document, institutional arrangements and strategies to ensure cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder coordination, knowledge sharing and learning about climate change will be prepared to create a learning platform, in line with NAPA components 2 and 3.

The total fund for NAPA project is US$ 1.325 million. It is funded from the GEF operated LDC Fund (US$ 200,000) and UNDP (US$ 50,000) to implement, in particular its Component 1 (NAPA preparation). Implementation of Components 2 and 3 is funded by DfID (US$ 875,000) and the Embassy of Denmark, Kathmandu (US$ 200,000).