This briefing focuses on the impact of climate change on Nepal’s rural poor. A great deal has been written on the challenges of providing clean energy and the risks to urban populations but, as this paper outlines, climate change also has many other consequences. Rural communities, whose livelihoods are intimately tied to the environment, are profoundly affected by the climate, yet have received little attention in the climate change literature. This aim of this briefing is to help address this shortcoming by first, setting out the current understanding of climate change and its impacts for Nepal and second, demonstrating that through immediate government action and community based adaptation the needs of those most affected by climate change can be met.
