Days after devastating floods swept through Nepal's Bhotekoshi-Trisuli river basin, the true scale of the disaster is still emerging. More than 1,250 people have been confirmed dead and almost 4,000 are still missing. Buildings, bridges, roads and over a dozen hydropower facilities have been destroyed, causing an estimated $2.6 billion (€2.24 billion) in damage to public and private infrastructure, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA).
Search and rescue operations for missing people remain underway, with families still hoping for their safe return. The exact cause of the glacial collapse remains unclear, but experts say climate change is causing glaciers to melt worldwide, increasing the risk of such disasters. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video For Nepal, the disaster has raised a question that goes beyond rescue and reconstruction.
It's about climate justice and who should bear the costs and responsibility for such environmental disasters when the Himalayan nation contributes only a tiny fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions yet faces increasingly severe climate-related risks. Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah said responding to the catastrophe is a "global responsibility." "As we work tirelessly to address the damage caused by this sudden and massive disaster, a deeper question has also emerged: How did this destruction happen to us?" Shah asked while addressing Parliament this week. "Mitigating and managing its impacts is regarded as a shared responsibility of the international community," he stressed.
Kathmandu is planning to raise climate justice issues in the upcoming United Nations General Assembly session in New York, where Prime Minister Shah himself is likely to lead the Nepali delegation. "We will make our case about the impact of climate change and seek global support and moral obligation to tackle it," Nepal's Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal told DW. "We will also take the initiative of building a coalition of climate-vulnerable countries to raise our collective concerns." Nepal, a largely rural nation of 30 million people, has contributed little to the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming.
The country accounts for just 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions and emits about 0.5 tons of CO₂ per person each year, making it a "negligible contributor to climate change," according to the World Bank. But the landlocked Himalayan nation is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, with flooding, landslides, glacier-related hazards and other environmental risks threatening lives and livelihoods. Nepal's leaders say the country needs long-term international support to adapt to a rapidly changing mountain environment.
The country's government estimates that implementing adaptation priorities between 2025 and 2035 could require as much as $18 billion to $20 billion. And Kathmandu wants international climate finance to provide most of these funds. Nepal has spent years arguing in global climate forums that vulnerable mountain countries need greater support for adaptation and resilience.
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