Sustainable Summits 2021 Nepal

Sustainable Summits is an international conference series for sharing solutions on protecting and preserving the world’s mountain regions. The Sustainable Summits conferences are inspired by the growing pressures on our mountain environments, the need to find solutions to the impacts of such pressures, and a drive to uphold the values sustaining these environments. Sustainable Summits 2021 (SS21) was planned to be held in Nepal to showcase the country’s mountain environment, bring international attention to the climate change impacts in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH), and to highlight the role of mountains in the lead up to COP 26 in Glasgow in November 2021. SS21 aims to:

• Honour mountain voices and promote understanding of the Himalaya as an “abode of the gods”
• Provide a platform for issues from the HKH region to be consolidated and influence local, national, and international policies – particularly COP 26
• Strengthen tourism in the HKH region
• Learn and share best practices on the themes of the conference (see below)
• Explore opportunities for national and regional cooperation
• Strengthen national, regional, and global networks to share and adopt mountain solutions

Due to COVID 19, however, it was impossible to hold the SS21 conference as originally intended. Therefore, ICIMOD – in collaboration with the Climate Alliance of Himalayan Communities (CAHC); the SS21 organizing committee; and the British Embassy in Kathmandu – produced a series of films covering the same themes, to achieve the same objectives, and to promote the Sustainable Summits message in the region and internationally with a focus on providing an HKH message for COP 26.