Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has launched the ‘Unity for Sustainability’ campaign, a two-year-long climate initiative, started by Annapurna Media Network, one of Nepal’s leading media houses.

PM Deuba inaugurated the campaign amid a special function organized by AMN at Hotel Yak & Yeti in Kathmandu on January 7.  The program itself, which came into force on January 7, was announced amid a special function in Kathmandu on November 24.

The first-of-its-campaign in Nepal aims to bring key climate stakeholders together to fight the effects of climate change and create sustainable development. Inaugurating the campaign, PM Deuba applauded AMN initiatives to create awareness on climate change issues.

PM Deuba added that media can play a vital role in highlighting issues of climate change and contribute to an enhanced dialogue. “I believe we can contribute to clean and green nature-based solutions to the prevailing climate change and environmental issues. I also strongly raised the issue in the recent COP26 Summit,” said PM Deuba. He informed of the initiatives taken by Nepal government to mitigate the effects of climate change. 

Three former prime ministers—KP Sharma Oli, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and Madhav Kumar Nepal—through their video message appreciated the AMN initiation as well. They also underlined the need to work together to fight climate change.

Speaking at the program, AMN Chairman Capt. Rameshwar Thapa said the world was passing through a climate crisis so all stakeholders must unite and work in collaboration. “I am confident that this initiation will add one more brick towards green minds, thereby green behaviors,” Thapa said. Thapa added that as a media house it is AMN’s duty to make people aware and alarmed about this life-and-death issue. “The issue of climate change concerns me. This it the time to give back to the environment and society,” he said.

Chief Executive Officer of Annapurna Media Network Sanat Neupane formally asked for more and more climate partners to support the initiative. Neupane said, “Join us or please make us join you, all that matters is a partnership and doing something more.” He further added, “Climate change, we thought, was a distant ghost but now it is knocking on our doors.”

The program also witnessed the signing of Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with dozens of organizations to work together on climate change. The inauguration program was attended by high-level government officials, climate activists, leaders of civil society, and national and international media representatives.  

To fight climate change individual steps are not enough and all stakeholders need to work together. Right now, these stakeholders are not working in unison and there is a lack of coordination, and hence no concrete output. AMN hopes to change this state of affairs by bringing together climate stakeholders and fostering meaningful interactions between them.

Nepal is in the process of rapid development and achieving economic prosperity. In the current development process, the issue of environmental protection has not received due attention. AMN believes in a sustainable development framework that strikes balance between development and environmental protection.

It wants to highlight the issue of sustainable development that takes care of the planet, and to address the challenges posed by the effects of climate change. So the core of the campaign is to unite all stakeholders to work on a sustainable development framework. AMN will be organizing a series of related programs in the days to come.