Bel©m: The COP30 Global Climate Action Agenda outcome report, released on 21 November 2025, represents an important turning point in global climate governance. The conference, which took place in Bel©m, Brazil, from 10-21 November 2025, brought together world leaders, including Nepal’s President Ramchandra Paudel.
According to National News Agency Nepal, COP30, as the highest decision-making authority under the UNFCCC, convenes all Parties to review how the Convention and other instruments are being implemented, while also making the necessary decisions to ensure effective and efficient execution of climate commitments. During COP30, Parties assessed the progress made under existing climate obligations and introduced more robust frameworks for mitigation, adaptation, and resilience efforts. The Climate Action Agenda is organised around six thematic axes, with Axis 5 focusing on fostering human and social development.
Axis 5 Fostering Human and Social Development highlights the need for climate strategies to directly enhance human well-being by safeguarding public health, strengthening social protection, expanding skill development, and preserving cultural heritage. COP30 places human-centred climate action at the core of resilience-building, emphasizing the importance of improving health systems, broadening social protection mechanisms, investing in green skills, and supporting vulnerable groups. These principles align closely with Nepal’s constitutional guarantees, particularly Article 30, which affirms the right to a clean and healthy environment and calls for measures that prevent environmental harm.
The Bel©m Health Plan integrates climate science into public health systems through early-warning mechanisms, climate-informed surveillance, and equitable service delivery. However, in Nepal, there are challenges such as a lack of clear, dedicated budget lines for climate-health programs and limited integration of early-warning systems into health services. Strengthening surveillance, ensuring stable climate-health financing, and expanding local capacity remain key needs for the nation.
The Bel©m Declaration on Hunger, Poverty, and Human-Centered Climate Action-endorsed by 43 countries and the EU-connects climate policies to poverty reduction. In Nepal, social protection systems are only partially responsive to climate shocks. Programs like the Social Security Fund and Disaster Relief Funds lack clear mechanisms for rapid climate-triggered assistance, and smallholder farmers face limited access to climate finance.
The Global Initiative for Jobs and Skills for the New Economy aims to embed workforce development into climate strategies. However, in Nepal, training programs are scattered and uncoordinated, and there is no national green-skills strategy backed by adequate investment. A structured plan for green jobs is urgently needed.
Global networks of higher education institutions are expanding their climate action efforts. In Nepal, climate education receives insufficient funding and is not well integrated into the national curriculum. Climate change courses need to be mainstreamed at school and university levels, supported by dedicated funding, and complemented by international scholarship opportunities.
Although Nepal has taken steps to safeguard cultural heritage, it lacks dedicated financing and has not integrated cultural heritage adaptation into its national planning processes. Opportunities exist to elevate Nepal’s cultural heritage on global platforms.
Nepal’s 2025/26 budget emphasizes encouraging agricultural production, acknowledging that climate change is increasingly affecting agriculture, water supply, irrigation, and related sectors. To attract youth to agriculture, the government intends to build a comprehensive ecosystem that includes access to land, inputs, insurance, purchase agreements, and market support.
Multiple multilateral climate funds are available to support climate action, and Nepal is well-positioned to access them. Although Nepal faces notable gaps, such as limited climate-health financing and underfunded climate education, significant opportunities exist to accelerate progress toward COP30 Axis 5 goals.