Climate change and renewable energy

Climate change is the long-term change in the Earth's average temperature and weather patterns, mainly caused by greenhouse gases released by human activities such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation. Its effects include global warming, melting glaciers, sea-level rise, erratic rainfall, floods, droughts and loss of biodiversity.

Alternative (renewable) energy

Renewable energy comes from sources that are naturally replenished – hydropower, solar, wind, biomass/biogas, geothermal and micro-hydro – and produces little or no greenhouse gas during operation.

Usefulness of renewable energy regarding climate change

1. Mitigation – reducing emissions

• Replaces coal, oil and gas in electricity, so CO₂ emissions fall sharply; the energy sector is the largest source of global emissions.
• Electric vehicles powered by hydropower cut transport emissions – very relevant for Nepal, which imports all petroleum.
• Electric/induction cooking and biogas replace firewood and LPG, reducing CO₂ and black carbon.
• Biogas captures methane from dung that would otherwise escape.
• Less firewood demand means less deforestation, keeping forests as carbon sinks.

2. Adaptation and resilience

• Decentralised energy (solar home systems, micro-hydro, mini-grids) keeps remote villages supplied when floods or landslides cut the grid.
• Solar water pumps support irrigation during droughts.
• Energy for cold storage, communication and early-warning systems.

3. Co-benefits

• Cleaner air in cities and homes – fewer respiratory diseases.
• Energy security and less spending on imported fuel (petroleum imports are a large share of Nepal's trade deficit).
• Jobs and local industry (solar installers, biogas masons, micro-hydro operators).
• Rural electrification and better education and health services.

4. Nepal's context

• Large hydropower potential, good solar radiation (about 300 sunny days a year), widespread biogas (several hundred thousand plants) and micro-hydro.
• Nepal's NDC and long-term strategy aim for net-zero emissions by 2045 using hydropower, EVs and clean cooking; exporting clean electricity to India and Bangladesh can help reduce regional emissions.

Limitations: high initial cost, intermittency of solar and wind (needs storage), seasonal variation of run-of-river hydropower, and climate risks to hydropower itself (GLOF, sediment). Proper planning and storage projects are needed.