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Nepal concluded its participation at the 30th Conference of Parties (COP30) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with a very small team of around 20 negotiating officials. 

From securing global recognition for mountain ecosystems to amplifying the voice of vulnerable nations, Nepal’s delegation—though small—played a strategic and coordinated role throughout the two-week summit in Belém, Brazil.

According to Maheshwar Dhakal, joint-secretary at the Ministry of Forests and Environment and Nepal’s national focal point for the UNFCCC, the country’s presence at COP30 was marked by “strong leadership, intensive engagement, and historic outcomes” for its long-pursued mountain agenda.

COP30 opened with a series of preparatory sessions starting Nov 4—LDC Group meetings on Nov 4–5, Leaders’ Summit on Nov 6–7, and G77 and China consultations on Nov 8–9. The main negotiations ran from Nov 10–21, with discussions extending unofficially until Nov 22.

Nepal’s delegation, led by Agriculture and Livestock Development Minister Madan Prasad Pariyar participated in a number of engagements. Supported by senior officials including MOFE Secretary Rajendra Prasad Mishra, OPMCM Secretary Govinda Karki, MoALD Secretary Deepak Kharal, and Nepal’s Ambassador to Brazil Nirmal Kafley, the team included representatives from government, civil society, academia, and the media.

The highlight of Nepal’s COP30 engagement was the successful global recognition of the mountain agenda, an advocacy effort pursued jointly with Bhutan and Kyrgyzstan.

Nepal held two rounds of consultations with the COP30 Presidency, resulting in three major achievements. First on agreement to hold an Annual Dialogue on Mountains and Climate Change, beginning at SB64 in June 2026. The second one on inclusion of mountain ecosystems in the Global Mutirão (Mutirão) decision text, the main outcome document of COP30.

And the third on recognition of the mountain agenda in the preamble of the COP30 cover decision, as well as in the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) text.

Dhakal noted that this was “the strongest visibility that mountain issues have ever received at the UNFCCC,” indicating that years of persistent diplomacy had finally begun to pay off.

Nepal backed three key declarations proposed by the COP30 Presidency. Tropical Forest Facility Forever, Integrated Fire Management Declaration, Sustainable Fossil Fuel Management Declaration are on the list. Officials said these positions align with Nepal’s commitments to forest conservation and climate-resilient development.

Minister Pariyar delivered Nepal’s national statement at the high-level plenary, emphasizing the urgent need to protect vulnerable communities in the Himalayas. He also participated in 11 high-level events, including Nepal’s flagship program, “Sagarmatha to Belém”.

MOFE Secretary Mishra spoke at the Leader Summit and presented a joint statement on behalf of Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan at the opening plenary, highlighting the shared vulnerabilities of Himalayan and South Asian nations.

OPMCM Secretary Govinda Karki addressed climate finance during a ministerial dialogue, calling for stronger global support to implement Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).

Nepal’s non-governmental actors and media delegates also remained active throughout, engaging in pavilion events and side discussions with development partners.

In its closing remarks, Nepal underscored the existential threat posed by global warming to Himalayan ecosystems: “For Nepal, keeping global temperature rise below 1.5°C is not just a number in an agreement—it is a matter of survival.”

Nepal welcomed the Mutirão decision, commitments to adaptation and loss and damage funding, and the new annual mountain dialogue. It also expressed gratitude to Brazil for its hospitality and congratulated Turkey and Australia for being selected to co-host COP31, and Ethiopia, the first LDC to host COP32.

Nepal expressed appreciation for the COP30 Presidency’s leadership in negotiating the mountain text. “As climate impacts intensify, the urgency to respond to the unique challenges faced by mountain regions is greater than ever,” Nepal said, while expressing hope that a formal agenda item on mountains could be secured in the future.

Despite limited numbers, Nepal maintained high internal coordination through regular meetings and media briefings. Dhakal said the quality of Nepal’s interventions, the unity among delegates, and strong collaboration with other mountainous nations were widely appreciated.

He added that Nepal’s mountain agenda is now “close to the establishment phase,” with further efforts needed in the lead-up to COP31 and SB64.

As COP30 concluded, Nepal’s delegation returned home preparing for a formal debrief. With COP31 set to be hosted jointly by Turkey and Australia, and COP32 by Ethiopia, Nepal aims to continue building momentum toward securing formal recognition and sustained support for mountain regions, one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable ecosystems.

In Dec 2023, COP28 held in Dubai passed an ambitious plan to dramatically cut the use of petrol, gas, and coal by 2050, expand the use of renewable energy, and bring fossil-fuel emissions down to net zero. A total of 198 countries signed the agreement.

However, shortly after signing, countries including Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, and India backtracked on their commitments, arguing that the continued use of fossil fuels was necessary to meet global energy needs.

The United States, which had played a crucial role in securing signatures during COP28, has shown little interest in the issue after Donald Trump returned to the presidency. Trump has labeled climate change “the biggest hoax in the world.”

This time, he did not send any official federal delegation to Belém. At Belém, more than 80 countries from Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa expressed the need for a clear roadmap to implement the COP28 commitments. But under the leadership of Saudi Arabia, countries like China, India, and Russia blocked progress on the agenda. As a result, the final agreement made no mention of fossil fuels at all.

International media also reported COP30 as a flop. “This year’s UN climate conference in Brazil had many unique aspects that could have been part of an historic outcome,” AP wrote adding, “The final decision announced Saturday, which included some tangible things like an increase in money to help developing nations adapt to climate change, was overall watered-down compared to many conferences in the past decade and fell far short of many delegates’ expectations. It didn’t mention the words ‘fossil fuels’, much less include a timeline to reduce their use.” 

Instead of being remembered as historic, the conference will likely further erode confidence in a process that many environmentalists and even some world leaders have argued isn’t up to the challenge of confronting global temperature rise, which is leading to more frequent and intense extreme weather events like floods, storms and heat waves, it said.

Reuters said that Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had launched the summit calling for countries to agree on a ‘roadmap’ for advancing a COP28 pledge to shift away from fossil fuels.

“But it was a road to nowhere at this summit, as oil-rich Arab nations and others dependent on fossil fuels blocked any mention of the issue. Instead, the COP30 presidency created a voluntary plan that countries could sign on to—or not,” it wrote. “The result was similar to Egypt's COP27 and Azerbaijan’s COP29, where countries agreed to spend more money to address climate dangers while ignoring their primary cause.”

In the narrow alleys and bustling courtyards of the Kathmandu Valley, one can still spot a few elders hunched over a hand-drawn grid, deep in concentration. Their fingers move small stones across intersecting lines etched on the ground—a scene that has quietly endured for generations. The game is called Bagh Chal, translating to “tiger’s move,” a traditional Nepali board game. As a child I remember playing with friends by drawing on paper as introduced by my father. We would roll paper and name them after tigers and goats.

Once a common pastime among both young and old, Bagh Chal is now fading into obscurity. “When we were children, everyone knew how to play it,” recalls a local resident. “We would draw the board on the floor or paper and play for hours. But now, I hardly see children playing it anymore.” With the rise of digital gaming and mobile entertainment, traditional games like Bagh Chal have lost much of their foothold.

Gopal Shrestha, nearly 90, reminisced about the days when he would play Bagh Chal carefree with anyone he found in the corners of the neighborhood. “The game is slowly losing its value, and I fear this generation might not be interested in it,” he said. But he remained hopeful and said, “Perhaps people can revive it by playing again, because everything comes back in cycles like fashion, culture, and traditions. Bagh Chal can be brought back if people take an interest in it.”

Bagh Chal is played between two players, one controlling four tigers and the other twenty goats. The board consists of a 5×5 point grid, with pieces placed at the intersections rather than within the squares. The tigers begin on the corners, while the goats are introduced one at a time. Before the start of the game, the twenty goats are placed outside the board, and the four tigers are positioned in the four corners. Players move alternately, with the goats always starting first. The actions made by the goats divide the game into two phases. 

In the first phase, while all twenty goats have not yet been placed on the board, the only possible move is to place one of them at a free junction. In the second phase, after all goats have been placed, they may move from their position to any adjacent junction following a straight line. The tigers, throughout the game, may perform two types of movements: like goats, they can move along any line to an adjacent junction, or they may capture a goat on an adjacent point by jumping over it along a straight line and landing on the next free junction.

Jayaram Hada, a local resident of Bhaktapur, shared, “It’s refreshing to hear young people talk about these traditional games because not many are interested in them anymore. I often see my grandchildren glued to their phones and digital games, which aren’t good for their health either. Bagh Chal is such a strategic game—it sharpens the mind and keeps you alert.” He added with a smile that he would love to play again, though his aching knees now make it difficult for him to move around the corners of the courtyard as he once did.

Occasionally, the game can fall into a repetitive cycle of positions—often used by goats as a defensive tactic. To prevent endless repetition, an additional rule has been established: once all goats have been placed, no move is allowed that recreates a previously repeated position within the same game. The tigers win by capturing at least five goats, achieved by leaping over them into an adjacent empty spot, while the goats win by blocking all tigers so they can no longer move.

For the tigers, movement is allowed to any adjacent free point along the connecting lines. They can capture goats at any time, even before all the goats have been placed on the board, but only one goat can be captured in a single move. A tiger may jump over a goat in any direction as long as there is an open space to land, but it cannot jump over another tiger.

The goats, on the other hand, cannot move until all have been positioned on the board. When a goat is captured, it is permanently removed from play. Unlike tigers, goats cannot jump over any pieces, whether tigers or other goats. The game concludes when the tigers have captured five goats or when the goats successfully block all possible moves of the tigers. The game ends when either the tigers capture five goats or the goats completely trap the tigers.

Bagh Chal shares similarities with South India’s Aadu Puli Aattam (the Lambs and Tigers game), yet its identity remains distinctly Nepali—often played with stones especially on the floor. Today, some enthusiasts and developers have digitized Bagh Chal, creating mobile versions to introduce it to newer generations. But for many, the tactile pleasure of drawing the grid on the floor and playing under the open sky remains irreplaceable.

CPN-UML, the second-largest party in the dissolved House of Representatives, is undergoing an intense internal conflict, though it is far less vocal than the turmoil inside the Nepali Congress. Almost all senior leaders believe that Chairman KP Sharma Oli should step down for the sake of the party, arguing that his image has been tarnished by the killing of 19 students during the Sept 8 GenZ protest, when he was prime minister.

While some leaders have openly demanded his resignation, others remain hesitant, fearing that if Oli wins the party leadership next month, they could face the same fate as the many leaders who were sidelined after Oli became the UML chairman in 2015.

Senior leaders such as Ishwar Pokhrel, Surendra Pandey and Astha Laxmi Shakya have publicly stated that Oli should not contest the leadership election. Despite this, Oli is preparing to seek unanimous endorsement as party chair at the general convention scheduled for Dec 13-14 in Kathmandu. Many leaders worry that he could manipulate the process of selecting convention representatives to secure his victory.

In the 2021 convention, Bhim Rawal had challenged Oli, but was ultimately pushed out of UML. Rawal has now joined the Nepali Communist Party formed by former Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Dahal, having dropped the Maoist label, is now working to consolidate fringe communist groups under his leadership. Likewise, after a prolonged rivalry with Oli, Madhav Kumar Nepal split from UML to form his own party, CPN (Unified Socialist). Now he too has joined the Nepal Communist Party.

UML insiders say defeating Oli at the convention remains a herculean task, given his strong organizational grip. To maintain control, Oli even blocked the possible entry of former President Bidya Devi Bhandari by stripping her of party membership without any compelling justification. Bhandari, however, continues to oppose Oli from outside the party and is strongly backing senior leader Ishwar Pokhrel for party chair. Many senior leaders are also gravitating toward Pokhrel, and his faction is expected to restore Bhandari’s membership if they secure the leadership.

At a recent party meeting, Pokhrel informed Oli directly that he intends to run for the UML leadership. He is preparing to issue a public appeal to convention representatives in the coming days. Senior leaders Astha Laxmi Shakya, Yubaraj Gyawali, Surendra Pandey, Yogesh Bhattarai and Gokarna Bista have already rallied behind him. Meanwhile, senior leader Bishnu Poudel, who served as finance minister under Oli, has adopted a neutral stance, remaining silent on the leadership dispute despite his strong organizational influence across the country.

The conflict, however, is not limited to leadership. Many top leaders are dissatisfied with the party’s policy direction following the GenZ movement. They oppose Oli’s decision to form the National Volunteers Force, which they fear could trigger internal confrontations. Despite objections from key office bearers, Oli moved ahead with the plan and began coordinating directly with Mahesh Basnet, bypassing party structures.

These leaders argue the party cannot reject elections outright while focusing solely on restoring Parliament. They believe Oli is inflaming political tensions rather than helping stabilize the national environment, which has led to clashes between UML cadres and GenZ activists. 

Leaders worry that his refusal to acknowledge the concerns of young people could damage the party’s electoral prospects. Several senior leaders say that although the violence on Sept 8–9 was unprecedented, the party must recognize the underlying demands of the youth, particularly the need to curb corruption and improve governance. 

Rejecting the September protests will alienate the youth, one senior official said on condition of anonymity. The leader added that Oli now appears to be using the party’s institutional strength to shield himself from potential action over his role in those events, a move they warn will harm UML in the long run.

With the Nepali Congress already committing to elections, UML finds itself increasingly isolated. The Nepali Communist Party led by Dahal and other fringe parties have also decided to contest the polls on 5 March 2026. 

As the general convention approaches, Oli’s position among office bearers is weakening. Only a handful of senior leaders, including Pradeep Gyawali, Shankar Pokhrel, Bishnu Rimal and Prithvi Subba Gurung, continue to back him strongly, while most others either openly criticize him or support a change in leadership.

Nepali Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa has claimed that the party will not contest the upcoming elections to the House of Representatives under the signature of the current President Sher Bahadur Deuba.

Stating that a new leadership will emerge from the special general convention, he said that the Congress will contest the elections under the signature of the newly elected president.  

Nepali Congress has registered the party for the House of Representatives and National Assembly elections under the signature of President Sher Bahadur Deuba. Therefore, there are speculations that Deuba, who had entrusted Vice President Purna Bahadur Khadka with the responsibilities of acting party president, had returned to active politics with an intention to influence ticket distribution.

Meanwhile, he said that there is no alternative to special general convention in the Congress.

Thapa further said that the signature of Deuba submitted in the Election should be replaced once the new president is elected.