Highest Cabinet Meeting - Nepal cabinet
sets world record
MOUNT EVEREST, Nepal--With icy winds blowing on a sunny
morning, 24 of Nepal’s 27 ministers held a historic meeting
at Kala Patthar, 17,192 ft above sea level-setting the world
record for the Highest
Cabinet Meeting.
The cabinet adopted a Mt. Everest Declaration,
approved Prime Minister’s speech for the Copenhagen meet and
announced setting up of Gaurishankar Conservation Area (spread
across 2,000 square kilometres near Mt. Everest). "The
Everest declaration was a message to the world to minimize
the negative impact of climate change on Mount Everest and
other Himalayan mountains," Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal
told reporters. (enlarge
photo)
The Highest
Cabinet Meeting at a Mt. Everest base camp is Nepal’s
symbolic attempt at attracting worldwide attention on the
threat posed to Himalayan glaciers by global warming.
"It’s not a Nepali issue or the concern of
countries in the Himalayan region alone. The impact of global
change on the Himalayas would impact 1.3 billion people living
in South Asia,” said Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.
Nepal's Forest Minister Deepak Bohra was
inspired by the Maldives government to conceive the idea of
the Qomolangma Highest
Cabinet Meeting.
In October, the Maldives
Cabinet held a meeting underwater to highlight the danger
rising sea levels, attributed to global warming, posed to
the Indian Ocean archipelago.
Nepal's cash-strapped government
spent only 1 Nepali rupee though the expedition cost more
than Rs 6 million ($81,080). The entire expense was borne
by the private sector related to tourism.
The cabinet spent only 20 minutes next to
the mountain on a clear, sunny day in an effort to prevent
any of the ministers, unused to the heights of the Himalayas,
from getting altitude sickness.
"The
Everest declaration was a message to the world to minimize
the negative impact of climate change on Mount Everest and
other Himalayan mountains," Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal
told reporters.
