Marrakech Climate Change Conference was a rewarding event for Nepal to share the knowledge and experience in addressing climate change impacts in the medium and long-term. On 14 November, the CoP 22 President and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Morocco convened a high-level meeting on 'progress in advancing National Adaptation Plans (NAPs)' to highlight the central role of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and other entities in advancing adaptation through NAPs. This event was addressed by the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Ministers for Environment of Benin and Madagascar, Co-Chair of the GCF, and representatives of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The Executive Director of GCF announced the approval of its first grants in support of processes to develop NAPs. Under the GCF's Readiness and Preparatory Programme, Nepal received a grant of USD 2.9 million with UNEP acting as its delivery partner to implement its NAPs activities, and Liberia received USD 2.2 million via UNDP. It is part of the first fast-track NAP grants. It means Nepal is the first country to access GCF resources for the NAP process.

Parties to the UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement (PA) met at Marrakech, Morocco from 7 to 18 November 2016, to negotiate and make decisions for the effective implementation of these legally binding instruments. About 22,500 participants, including nearly 15,800 government delegates attended this Conference. As PA entered into force, this Conference drew more attention to know how it could be implemented. Recalling the 2011, entry into force of PA in November 2016 looks like 'pre-mature birth'.

The High-level Segment (HLS) was inaugurated by the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, and was participated in by about 70 Heads of State and Government. It demonstrates the strong political will and commitment of the global community to address climate change impacts. This “CoP for action” urged for enhanced actions and ambitions on mitigation and adaptation, as well as to understand supports provided and received.

On 17 November, Heads of State, Government and Delegations issued a proclamation to signal a shift towards a new era of implementation and action on climate and sustainable development. The Marrakech Call unanimously called 'for further action and support, well in advance of 2020, taking into account the specific needs and special circumstances of developing countries, LDCs and those particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change'. Several decisions have been made on adaptation, mitigation, technology development, finance and capacity building. On NAP, Parties encouraged, inter alia, to forward outputs and outcomes related to NAP formulation and implementation to NAP Central, and appreciated the GCF Board decision of June 2016 to provide up to US$ 3 million for NAP formulation.

Addressing the HLS of the Conference, Minister Jay Dev Joshi, Head of Nepalese Delegation, informed about 'NAP process and climate change impact surveys' in Nepal and priorities on 'accessing climate finance, up-scaling renewable energy, and building adaptive capacity to achieve sustainable development goals'. Nepalese Delegation comprised of members from political level to planners, negotiators and NGOs.

Several members of the Nepalese Delegation took part in the negotiation and side-events. Dr. Bishwa N. Oli shed light on need and importance of south-south cooperation on climate change. Dr. Sindhu Dhungana shared experiences on REDD+ and community forests. In his capacity as the Chair of the Adaptation Fund Board, established to finance adaptation options in the developing countries, Naresh Sharma made statements at the plenary and HLS. Sharma also represented Adaptation Fund Board in sharing experiences of Nepal's NAP process, and implementation of LAPAs in other side events during these two weeks. Ritu Pantha and Dr. Bimal Regmi also shared Nepal's initiatives and good practices in addressing climate change impacts.

On agenda item (Nairobi Work Programme on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change), Ugan Manandhar from Nepal negotiated with the developed countries on behalf of Group of 77 and China (major negotiating block of 134 countries). I shared Nepal's NAP process in Korea and UNEP organised event on monitoring of NAP process; integration of adaptation into local to national planning process on session: ambition, commitment and ACTION organised by IDRC; and functioned as the member panel of judges in a session on politics and adaptation organised by Action on Climate Today (ACT) during Development and Climate Days. ACT is supporting Nepal's NAP formulation process. Clare Shakya, Head of Climate Change Group at IIED who was instrumental in supporting Nepal's NAPA and LAPA preparation processes also reiterated support for the government-led initiatives and find 'entry point' to work with the government for transformational change.

The GoN in collaboration with ICIMOD exhibited climate change adaptation for the first time during the last 22 years of CoP sessions. In the past, Nepali participants used to collect pen-drive, and this time Nepal offered pen-drive containing several publications such as climate change policy, NAPA, LAPA, budget code, adaptation actions under implementation by several organisations, including several publications of ICIMOD.

The GoN and ICIMOD jointly organised a side-event on experience sharing on Nepal's NAP formulation process and approach. As a chief guest, Minister Jay Dev Joshi  stated that 'the NAP process will inform on what adaptation options we should focus for the medium and long-term and will build on experience of NAPA and LAPA'. He also informed that climate change adaptation is 'for the people, by the people and to the people'. The event was organised under the chair of Dr. Bishwa Nath Oli, Secretary of the Government of Nepal with two sessions: (i) Nepal's initiatives; and (ii) supporting the NAP process.

In the first part, Dr. Ram Prasad Lamsal, Dr. Prabhu Budhathoki (Member, NPC), and Janak Raj Chaudhary (President, PCEC) highlighted Nepal's approaches in NAP process, explored possibilities to integrate climate change into existing and legal instruments, and policies and programmes.

In the second session, Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu (Chair of the LDC Group for climate change), Messrs. Thinley Namgyel from Bhutan, Clifford Polycarp from GCF, Dr. Aditya Bahadur from ACT, Dr. Bimal Regmi from ICIMOD, and Ms. Ermira Fida from UNEP shared their views on the importance of NAP, interest of the international community to learn from Nepal's NAP process, and pleasure to engage in supporting Nepal in formulating the NAP which are much inclusive, transparent and open.

In a nutshell, Nepal shared its experiences through exhibition and side-events, and negotiated strongly and demonstrated its ability to be the first country to access GCF resources for NAP process.