Kathmandu, 27 August 2025 - Senior delegates, decision-makers, and scientists will gather this Friday to initiate the development of a National Air Quality Management Action Plan (NAQMAP) for Nepal, led by Nepal’s Ministry of Forest and Environment. Joining ministry officials will be representatives from the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences; India’s Central Pollution Control Board; The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur; Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development and the World Bank. 
Experts, policymakers and scientists from China, India and Nepal will share their experiences at a national level planning workshop for Nepal’s NAQMAP. The NAQMAP will be a milestone process in addressing the country’s growing air pollution crisis, and align health, environmental and well-being priorities with those of national development.

The inception workshop sets out to develop a common understanding of the NAQMAP development process by mapping data, initiatives,stakeholders in order to guide the baseline for the process.

The Action Planning will involve development of robust bottom-up emission inventory, source apportionment, sectoral actions, financial resource mapping, along with suggestions to improve institutional strengths to implement the action plan. To ensure effective and timely implementation of the action plan, a monitoring and evaluation framework will also be developed.  

Presentations by external experts will focus on the positive impacts achieved by similar initiatives like the National Clean Air Program in India, and China’s successful case-studies with air quality management. 
Event details:

Date: 29th August 2025 
Time: 9:00am
Inaugral Session: 10am onwards (with welcome remarks by State Minister and Minister, Ministry of Forests and Environment)
Venue: Hotel Basera Boutique, Babar Mahal, Kathmandu 
Experts:
Deepak Gyawali, Senior Divisional Chemist, Department of Environment, Government of Nepal 
Neelesh Kumar Shah, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India 
Sakshi Batra, Scientist, Central Pollution Control Board, India 
Ashish Tiwari, Air Lead, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development 
Martin Heger, Senior Environmental Economist, World Bank
Notes

For more information on the Developing the National Air Quality Management Action Plan (NAQMAP) workshop, please visit the event page.