Carbon sales bring in one billion and six hundred million rupees for Nepal.
Nepal is expected to collect 1 billion 600 million rupees from the sale of carbon within the next month, as per the deal with the World Bank. According to the Red Implementation Center, which is part of the Ministry of Forestry and Environment, Nepal will get funding from 2018 to 2024 to reduce carbon dioxide through the forests of 13 Terai districts.
Under the Terai Land Perimeter Program, Nepal will receive this sum in exchange for storing 2.4 million tons of carbon in 13 Terai districts, spanning from the Bagmati River to the Mahakali River.
The sum was supposed to come from the Forest Development Fund when the deal with the World Bank was first signed, according to Badriraj Dhungana, spokesperson and joint secretary of the Ministry of Forestry. He said that the World Bank had asked the government to provide clarification on the issue after the Ministry of Finance stated that such payments must first pass through the All Reserve Fund and then be transferred to the Forest Development Fund in accordance with national law.
Eighty percent of the proceeds from carbon trading are to be used for the benefit of the nearby indigenous populations. The government has approved and devised a plan for this, according to Dhungana, the spokesperson.
2018 saw the approval of Nepal's National Red Plus Strategy and National Forest Base Level with regard to carbon trading. Then, in order to distribute the advantages of carbon trading, a program to reduce carbon emissions was developed for 13 districts within the Terai area for the years 2019 to 2024.
The center's head and joint secretary, Navraj Pudasaini, reported that the program has been run on 1.7 million hectares across 13 districts. Nepal's forest area has accumulated an average of 167 tons of carbon per hectare. "A carbon emission reduction program has been conducted in 13 districts of Nepal's Terai region, with the aim of reducing approximately 34.2 million tons of carbon dioxide gas emissions by 2028," Joint Secretary Pudasaini stated. When assessed in 2023, 2.3 million tonnes of carbon emissions were reduced in the first phase.
educed in the first phase.
Nepal reaching a "Leaf Collision" accord
On November 3, 2021, a proposal titled "Partnership Program to Increase Forest Finance to Reduce Emissions" (Leaf Collision) was filed and signed on behalf of Nepal following the first phase of carbon trading. A market-driven and results-driven collaboration mechanism, LeafCollision brings together 26 private enterprises from the US, UK, Norway, and South Korea.
Costa Rica, Brazil, and Ghana have already reached a consensus on carbon pricing. The Ministry states that Nepal is getting ready to sign such an agreement during the 29th International Conference on Climate, which is scheduled to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from November 11–22. According to Joint Secretary Pudasaini, the required preparations have been made in order to sell the carbon stored in the forests of the provinces of Bagmati, Gandaki, and Lumbini.
Nepal has committed to storing seven million tons of carbon in the 3.2 million hectares of forest area spread across the three provinces by the year 2028. Nepal shall receive one hundred million US dollars in exchange for its carbon stockpile. The price of carbon will be set at $25 per ton for private businesses and $10 per ton for independent nations under this accord.
Expert on carbon trading and former joint secretary of the ministry Purushottam Ghimire stated that the Ministry of Forestry will only succeed if it embraces the private sector and advances carbon trading. "Carbon trading is not possible without involving the private sector," he declared. The private sector is governed by the law after being given permission to do this; the remaining areas ought to be left to their own devices. The minister should never meddle with the task at hand. According to him, planting trees on land owned by the private sector will promote carbon trading.
