Conversations: Ajaya Dixit on Risk and Resilience (Part 2) - Climate Change and the Future of Nepal’s Development Pathway

Ep. Co#008

The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly referred to as COP27, took place this November in Egypt. One major achievement of this round of dialogue, which went down to the wire, was to establish a loss and damage fund, particularly for nations vulnerable to the climate crisis. While this may have been “a historic decision,” it raises more questions than answers, especially for countries like Nepal.

In this second episode, Saumitra and Ajaya discuss the plausibility of Nepal reaching its ambitious goal of net-zero emission by 2045 and the impact of climate change on Nepal’s water, energy, and infrastructural development. They also discuss the transboundary nature of the water relationship in the region and how climate change can perturb the existing interdependencies.

Mr. Ajaya Dixit, co-founder and advisor of ISET-Nepal is an Ashoka Fellow who has led different projects on climate change adaptation and resilience building, disaster risk management, energy, food security and water governance. He possesses MSc in Engineering from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK and undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from Regional Engineering College, Orissa, India. He has directed regional research that examined climate changes impacts on flood, drought and food system adaptation in South Asia. His research focused on exploring the approaches to develop strategies for resilience building against climate change vulnerabilities at sub national scale. He coordinated and edited Nepal’s first national disaster report, which was published in 2010. He is also the lead author of the book “Nepal maa Bipad” (Disasters in Nepal) that was published in 2016. He has published extensively in prestigious journals such as the Economic and Political Weekly. His opinion is highly regarded in the international arena and has been regarded as a climate change adaptation and resilience expert in Nepal and South Asia.