Scheduled to convene in the Amazon city of Belém from Nov 10–21, COP30 is being regarded as a pivotal summit. This session marks the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement and introduces Brazil’s new climate priorities, including a focus on tropical forests, alongside the “Baku to Belém” roadmap for raising $1.3trn per year by 2035 for climate action in developing countries. Host Brazil has dubbed the event ‘Global Mutirão’, a call for collective effort.
In addition to global goals on adaptation and mitigation, COP30 will press major emitters to close longstanding finance gaps and set firmer targets for the world’s most vulnerable communities.
The team of the Ministry of Forests and Environment led by Secretary Rajendra Prasad Mishra is already in Brazil for the preparations. Also, Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development Madan Prasad Pariyar will lead the ministerial delegation to COP30. Officials have held phased consultations with government agencies, civil society and development partners to finalize a national position for COP30.
This year, a very small team will represent Nepal at COP. The decision comes in line with the Sept 21 Cabinet meeting, led by interim Prime Minister Sushila Karki, to curb non-essential overseas travel and limit official delegations. To cut government expenses, the government has capped heads of state or government-led delegations at 10 members and limited other government-sponsored teams to only three members.
Organizers hope this year’s COP will deliver both financial commitments and concrete actions to advance the goals set at previous meetings, branding it the “Implementation COP.” However, achieving this will be challenging due to reduced participation from the world’s largest emitters. The heads of the three biggest polluters—China, the United States, and India—will be notably absent. President Donald Trump, who withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement on his first day in office, will not send any senior officials, while China will be represented by Deputy Prime Minister Ding Xuexiang.
A week earlier, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), and Prakriti Resource Centre (PRC) organized a two-day Climate Negotiation Training to strengthen the negotiation skills, knowledge, and preparedness of Nepal’s inclusive climate negotiation team. The training aimed to enhance their capacity to effectively represent national priorities and perspectives in international climate discussions.
Nepal plans to highlight outcomes from its Sagarmatha Sambaad held on May 16-18, which produced a 25-point ‘Sagarmatha Call’ urging stronger mountain conservation and climate action. In particular, Nepal’s COP30 agenda will stress the needs of Himalayan countries, emphasizing glacier preservation, water security, and mountain biodiversity, as well as core United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) issues such as the Global Stocktake, finance, adaptation, mitigation and Article 6 carbon markets. The draft climate position paper covers nine themes from loss and damage to gender and youth, reflecting Nepal’s status as a Least Developed Country facing acute climate risks. The issues of climate transparency, capacity building and technology transfer, and climate justice are also priorities
The government says it will present a ‘national document’ at COP30 listing key priorities: climate finance, loss-and-damage, adaptation, mitigation and technology transfer for mountain regions.
In line with UNFCCC requirements, Nepal is revising its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) for 2035. Its recently published NDC 3.0 raises Nepal’s ambition in clean energy, cooking and transport, agriculture, forestry and other land use, waste and urban sectors. Nepal commits to reduce net greenhouse-gas emissions by 17.12 percent by 2030 and 26.79 percent by 2035 relative to a business-as-usual baseline, targets that are almost entirely conditional on receiving international climate finance.
The government estimates these mitigation efforts will require about $73.7bn through 2035, only 14.7 percent of which Nepal can fund domestically. Nepal also reaffirmed its long-term goal of carbon neutrality by 2045 (as announced at COP26), aiming for “net-zero emissions” with enhanced forest sinks.
Nepal’s energy strategy centers on renewable power. Nearly 100 percent of its electricity already comes from hydropower, and the country has accelerated hydropower and solar projects in recent years. The country plans an all-electric vehicle fleet by 2031 as it pushes to phase out petrol and diesel transport. Despite these efforts, analysts caution that Nepal’s actions must be matched by finance: as experts note, Kathmandu will press at COP30 for “global compensation for climate loss” and for simpler, grant-based funding mechanisms to help low-income countries like Nepal cope with impacts.
Nepal faces severe climate vulnerabilities despite negligible historical emissions. The country’s dramatic topography, from the southern Tarai plains to the towering Himalaya, is already showing stress.
Long-term trends are alarming. Glaciers in Nepal’s high mountains are melting rapidly. A 2023 report by ICIMOD and Himalayan scientists warns that at current warming trajectories, the Hindu Kush Himalaya glaciers could lose up to 75 percent of their ice by 2100.
“The Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group has set clear priorities for COP30, focusing on three main areas: Climate Finance, Ambition for 1.5°C, and Adaptation,” Environment Secretary Rajendra Prasad Mishra told ApEx, sharing the outcomes of the LDC Group meeting.
On climate finance, he said, “We aim to triple adaptation finance to at least $3bn under the LDCF-GEF-9 cycle, which is a crucial step toward addressing the estimated $120bn annual adaptation costs. We also support the implementation of the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance as part of the broader $1.3trn roadmap, and emphasize the need for a clear definition of climate finance.”
Speaking on the 1.5°C goal, Mishra added, “The group calls for urgent responses to the NDC Synthesis Report, the first Global Stocktake, and the Mitigation Work Programme to keep the 1.5°C target on track. We are proposing a Belém Roadmap to revisit 2035 NDCs, ensuring they align with this target, and we stress enhanced support for the implementation of all Nationally Determined Contributions.”
On adaptation, he said, “We are pushing for the adoption of a comprehensive list of indicators with strong ‘Means of Implementation’ coverage, and the launch of fast-track funding for National Adaptation Plans by 2030. Many of these priorities will be advanced through a Cover Decision at COP30.”
He also highlighted additional priorities: “The LDC Group seeks outcomes on Just Transition, predictable funding under the Forest and Land Restoration and Deforestation (FRLD) program, full implementation of the Technology Implementation Programme and National Technology Needs Assessments, strengthened delivery by the Climate Technology Centre and Network, review of capacity-building frameworks, and finalization of the Gender Action Plan. It is critical that the special circumstances of LDCs are recognized across all thematic areas to ensure they receive the support and funding needed to tackle the climate crisis effectively.”
At the Sagarmatha Dialogue earlier in 2025, official statements stressed that climate change threatens “the well-being of present and future generations” and undermines mountain communities even though they “contribute negligibly to global greenhouse gas emissions”. Officials and experts have repeatedly called for simpler access to climate funds, grant-based financing, and operationalization of the new Loss and Damage Fund agreed at COP29. In Kathmandu, UN agencies and think tanks echo these calls. UNDP experts advise that Nepal should press “for global compensation for climate loss” at COP30 while also building domestic policy and capacity to use funds efficiently.
Local scientists and NGOs are equally vocal. For example, WWF International’s director-general Kirsten Schuijt cautioned that “climate change is moving faster than we are, leaving no part of the world untouched”, a stark reminder of the urgency.
The new targets pledge ~17 percent (2030) and 27 percent (2035) cuts in net emissions (conditional on aid). These enhancements reflect Nepal’s view that even LDCs must strengthen ambition in line with the Paris stocktake. The UNFCCC now lists Nepal among about 60 countries that have presented updated NDCs by 2025.
Nepal has also enshrined a long-term net-zero goal: at COP26 in 2021, the country announced its intent to reach carbon neutrality by 2045, supported by a long-term low-emissions development strategy. Climate Action Tracker notes this pledge, rating it as “almost sufficient” on a 1.5 °C pathway if implemented with international support. In practice, achieving that goal will require vastly scaled-up funding and technology: Nepal estimates it will need $33bn through 2030 to meet its current NDC and another $47.4bn to implement its long-range adaptation plan by 2050. The government acknowledges it can only muster a tiny fraction of this, a reported $100m, domestically, underscoring why COP30 negotiations on finance are critical.
Importantly, at the Sagarmatha Sambaad, the government called for a dedicated Global Mountain Fund, a new finance mechanism to channel aid directly to vulnerable high-altitude communities. It also endorsed key elements of the UN’s Loss and Damage agenda, including capitalizing the new fund agreed at COP29 and simplifying access to climate finance for developing countries. These moves signal that Nepal views COP30 not just as an occasion to speak, but to deliver concrete policy proposals on how the world can support mountain nations.
As one of Earth’s most climate-vulnerable countries, Nepal approaches COP30 with urgency. Its message is clear: warming beyond 1.5°C threatens the Himalayas and the water supply of billions; glaciers are vanishing; floods and droughts are becoming daily life; and without dramatically increased finance and solidarity, even ambitious targets are hard to meet. Government officials and scientists alike say that real progress at COP30 will require bridging the gap between pledges and action, ensuring that decisions in Belém translate into money, technology and safeguards on the ground in Nepal and other frontline states.
