12 February 2015, Eco-Business news - Nepal's forests store more than 500 million tonnes of carbon, new government research has revealed. This is equivalent to about two thirds of India's total emissions in 2011.
Officials say this is the first nationwide survey of its kind and an important step towards preparing the country for trading carbon stored in forests, a mechanism for which is under discussion by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
"Now we are among the few countries that have solid scientific information about the status of its forest carbon," said Krishna Acharya, a spokesperson at Nepal's Forest Ministry.
How to pay poor countries for their efforts to preserve and store carbon in forests has long been a subject of hot debate at UN climate conferences.
As a least developed country, Nepal is eligible to sell carbon to developed countries who want to offset their emissions under the UN mechanism called Reducing Emissions through Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). But no agreement has yet been reached on how to verify and report emissions reductions – and wrangling has long stalled discussions initiated back in 2005.
But there are high hopes a deal will finally be made at the UN climate meeting in Paris this December.
"Discussions over forest carbon trade are at the final stage so chances are very high that an agreement will be inked in Paris. This research data will help Nepal to immediately move towards implementation once countries sign the deal," said Ugan Manandhar, forest carbon expert at WWF Nepal.
