The upcoming 16th summit of South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to be held in Bhutan this month has accepted thematic issue of environment protection to manifest the ally more functional.

As climate change has become the hot issue globally, the upcoming SAARC summit is also adopting this agenda as its major priority, according to a high level official at Nepali Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).

"We are functioning proactively and to make it more productive we have agreed to move ahead thematically," said Durga Prasad Bhattarai, Spokesperson at MoFA told Xinhua on Monday.

Considering the crucial significance globally, the SAARC has adopted the agenda of environment protection and climate change, he added.

"Some countries are being adversely affected by climate change innocently though they do not discharge greenhouse gas and some countries are contributing on global warming emitting greenhouse gas," said Bhattarai, adding that SAARC member countries are sensitive on the issue.

According to him, all SAARC eight-member countries are affected by climate change though the nature of their vulnerability may vary, yet it is inter-related. "While mountainous countries are escalating the issue of melting Himalayas, member countries like Maldives and Bangladesh are having serious problem of rising sea level," he said.

Furthermore, talking to Xinhua, Bhattarai stressed that SAARC member countries have earnestly realized the impact of climate change so they are heading for collective action to influence policy level.

Nevertheless, he mentioned that impact of climate change over these countries are related with their existence. If the present situation will last for 30 more years then Maldives may lose its existence with the rise of sea level while Bangladesh will lose 20 percent of low-lying areas in the Bay of Bengal resulting in displacement of 25 million people, he said.

Founded on Dec. 8, 1985, SAARC has eight member countries, namely Nepal, India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

China, Japan, Republic of Korea, the United States of America, Iran, Mauritius, Australia, Myanmar and the European Union have joined SAARC as "observers".

Meanwhile, when asked about the expectation of SAARC from its observers, Bhattarai said, "If any of the observers will give any input then it is ok, summit will hear on them. Based on broader perspective the summit will express its position but on basis of common merit forwarded by observer countries."

Besides this, the 16th SAARC summit with the theme on " Conservation of Environment and Climate" is expected to sign three major agreements. Agreement on Convention on Cooperation on Environment and Climate Change, Agreement on Natural Disaster Response Mechanism and an Agreement on Trade in Services among member states.

In addition, this summit is said to inaugurate the SAARC Development Fund based in Bhutan.

The two-day summit beginning from April 28 will be preceded by the Council of Ministers meeting on April 27, Standing Committee meeting of the Foreign Secretaries on April 25-26 and Programming Committee meeting of senior officials on April 24.