President calls for environment-friendly human settlements

Kathmandu / Apr: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has suggested the government to develop and implement integrated environment-friendly settlement favorable both to human life and the planet. She was speaking at a program entitled “Nepal’s Participation and Achievements in COP 24” held at Sheetal Niwas on Tuesday.

Speaking at the event hosted by the Ministry of Forest and Environment, the President said the stakeholders should first focus on support life and the development later. “Development should ease life.” She also said that we need to reconsider our development framework if it is harmful to health and life.

“We need to look at development holistically and finalize projects after considering what kind of planet we want to gift to the next generation,” President Bhandari said.

Taking part in the discussion, Forest and Environment Minister Shakti Bahadur Basnet said the contribution of the river system to link mountains with the ocean needs to be strongly raised so as to maintain balance in the environment. He also emphasized on the need to start a debate on green economy and mountain economy to address the impact on nature and life. Joint Secretary at the Ministry Maheswar Dhakal made a presentation on the efforts taken to domesticate the agenda of COP 24.

President Bhandari had led the Nepali delegation to the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate that was held in Katowice of Poland from October 2 to December 14 last year. RSS