Kathmandu, Jan 28: Minister for Energy Dipak Khadka has stated that the government was advancing in a planned way to build a foundation for resilient and low carbon economy, pursuing a sustainable and inclusive energy development.
At the “Energy Transition for Resilient and Low Carbon Economy Summit 2025” in the Capital today, Minister Khadka said the government was implementing the plans of risk reduction in development projects, increase internal power consumption and energy export promotion.
He also called upon to seriously think on risk reduction that could arise in infrastructure development. “We need to work for risk reduction by carrying out assessment,” the Minister added.
Khadka said that the assistance of the donor agencies and development partners should be effectively utilized for the sustainable development.
Discussing the provisions of the 10-year Energy Development Strategy of the government, Minister Khadka shared that the strategy paper has set targets of the to do lists in coming decade and added that the target of producing 28,500 megawatts of power was possible by 2035. “For this, we have revised different laws. Likewise, we have targeted to increase per capita power consumption to 1,500 units,” he said.
Minister Khadka also recalled that the private sector was brought on board in construction and operation of transmission line to make the energy sector further stronger.
Furthermore, he said that the project-affected communities and households would be given shares, which he said would help in collecting investment and ensure local communities’ ownership to the projects.
Also speaking at the event, Water Resources and Irrigation Secretary Sarita Dawadi said investment should be increased in renewable energy sector to complete electrification drive. She viewed that electrification should be done through the sources of alternative energy where the transmission line has not reached.
Likewise, Development Director at British Embassy in Nepal Pippa Bird laid emphasis on mobilization of green finance for the promotion of renewable energy. She stressed the need for a robust distribution system and infrastructure development for cross-border power transmission and other things for increasing access to domestic power supply.
Executive Director of Alternative Energy Promotion Centre Nabaraj Dhakal said that the Centre was collaborating and partnering with different development partners, private sector and local levels for sustainable, reliable and secured power system.
On the occasion, Director General of International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) Pema Gyamtsho said that energy was also related with the food security and observed that Nepal has potentials to take huge benefits in the areas of public transport, agriculture, tourism and others by maximizing the use of clean energy.
The ICIMOD Director General suggested that priority should be given to the small hydel projects instead of the mega projects in the countries like Nepal and Bhutan where the risks of natural disasters are high. #energy #nepal #rss
