Kathmandu, Jan 27 (PTI) Nepal’s Energy Minister Anil Kumar Sinha on Tuesday said that the government is working to create a strong and legal policy framework to increase the use of green energy.
Addressing the national conference on "Green energy and the carbon economy" organised by Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) in Kathmandu, Sinha said that such policy is needed to meet the right to a clean environment guaranteed to every citizen by the Nepalese constitution and to achieve sustainable development goals.
"Such an arrangement is required to achieve the national goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2045," Sinha who is also the Water Resources and Irrigation minister said.
Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Prakash Kumar Shrestha, stated that with 60 per cent of total energy consumption still coming from imported fuel, all sectors need to collaborate and cooperate towards achieving the national carbon emission target.
He also mentioned that despite having formulated a policy, implementation has been weak, and not much progress could be achieved towards attracting the private sector in this sector.
The Executive Director of the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC), Nawa Raj Dhakal, said arrangements have been made for setting up a 27-megawatt solar energy plant, installing 132 vehicle charging stations across the country.
He informed that the centre has so far installed 4,137 solar water pumps across Nepal to reduce the consumption of imported fuel for irrigation purposes.
At the conference organised on the occasion of the International Clean Energy Day, Dhakal said the objective of the conference is to discuss the path ahead for decarbonising the energy sector and forge collaboration among different stakeholders.