KATHMANDU, Sept 24: Prime Minister Balendra Shah is scheduled to address the high-level session of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday.
According to the UN schedule, Shah will speak during a session beginning at 3 pm local time. In Nepal, his address will fall after midnight on Friday.
Shah arrived in New York on Tuesday evening aboard a Qatar Airways flight. He is due to take part in several assembly sessions and discussions and meet UN Secretary General António Guterres during his visit.
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The prime minister is expected to focus on the recent climate-related disaster in Nepal. His address is being prepared to raise the damage caused by flooding in the Bhotekoshi area, the growing risks facing Himalayan communities and the need for international support.
Nepal also plans to press for climate compensation for countries that produce little carbon emissions but face severe consequences from climate change. It will call for an effective loss and damage fund that provides direct financial assistance without adding to affected countries’ debt.
Guterres referred to Nepal in his address to the assembly on Tuesday. Recalling a warning he gave from Nepal’s Himalayan region three years ago, he said he had drawn the world’s attention to the rapid melting of mountain snow. Recent events, he warned, show that the effects of climate change are arriving faster, hitting harder and spreading more widely than expected.
He said countries and communities least responsible for the climate crisis were suffering its earliest and gravest effects. Calling for climate justice, Guterres urged polluters to pay, developed countries to increase adaptation finance, and governments to make the loss and damage fund effective.
Guterres also spoke about conflicts, inequality and the weakening of international rules. Citing crises in the Middle East, Ukraine, Sudan and Myanmar, he called for respect for international law and the UN Charter. On artificial intelligence, he warned that technology without accountability, oversight and transparency could be dangerous. Decisions over life and death, he said, should not be left to machines.
Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal is also in the United States for diplomatic meetings. Shah’s delegation includes chief adviser Kumar Byanjankar, chief personal secretary Subas Sharma, private secretary Pradeep Pariyar and photographer Binay Shakya.
Shah is scheduled to return to Nepal via Qatar on September 26 after completing his UN engagements.
