Nepal Cabinet Scales New Heights - Meets at Everest

First, the ocean bed in Maldives, and now the highest mountain in the world, governments of different countries are taking their climate change awareness campaigns to unparalleled heights (and lows).

The Nepal cabinet led by the Prime Minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal, held the world's highest cabinet meeting, at the desolate Kalapattar plateau, in the foothills of the Mt. Everest, at a height of 5,262 meters, on Friday, December 3, 2009. The aim of this mountainous task - to highlight the impact of climate change on the Himalayan glaciers, which are melting at an alarming rate and according to scientists, are at the verge of disappearing completely.

Scheduled to last for 20 minutes, the main topic of discussion was the speech that the Prime minister is scheduled to make at the Climate Change Summit at Copenhagen, Denmark, later this month. Mr. Nepal read out the Everest Declaration at the meeting, which outlines the government's agenda for the summit. But the meeting went on for only 10 minutes, before the ministers were shifted to a lower altitude area.

Prime minister Nepal expressed concerns about global warming, at the historical meet stating the importance of united global effort. "Climate changes (and their fallout) is not the concern of Nepal or the Himalayan nations alone. We should unite to raise one voice and endeavor now to stop the negative effects of global warming," he said.

The meeting was held in the presence of a medical team, in case the ministers faced any problems, due to the high altitude. A few of the ministers also spent the previous night at the settlement of Syangboche, in order to acclimatise themselves. Environment Minister Thakur Prasad Sharma dismissed reports that the meeting was a publicity stunt, "The fact is that the glaciers are melting due to global warming. That has become a critical issue and we want to draw global attention to it."

The cabinet meet has drawn comparisons to the underwater cabinet meeting held by the government of Maldives on October 17, 2009, to draw attention to the increasingly dangerous problem of rising sea levels that is threatening to submerge the island.