Nepal is demanding $20m in climate compensation for the recent devastating floods, as a senior minister called on the world’s most polluting countries to “wake up” and accept shared responsibility for a disaster that led to the death or disappearance of more than 6,000 people. Scientists believe the climate crisis had a role to play in the floods, which were triggered when a melting glacier partially collapsed and set off a deadly landslide and flash flooding through Chinese-controlled Tibet and Nepal in late August. So far, more than 1,300 are confirmed dead and more than 5,500 still missing, with hopes of their survival diminished after 12 days of rescue operations.
Speaking to the Guardian, Nepal’s foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, was forthright in his call for climate justice and said it was imperative the world’s biggest economies stepped up to help Nepal recover and rebuild after the catastrophic floods. Nepal contributes less than 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, while its neighbours India and China are among the world’s biggest emitters. The mountains of the Himalayas – which span across India, China, Nepal and Bhutan – have been warming at a rate nearly 50% faster than the global average.
In 2023, the UN said Nepal’s mountains had lost close to a third of their ice in just over 30 years due to global heating. Khanal emphasised that the recent disaster was far more extreme than any flooding regularly seen during the monsoon season, and said the magnitude of damage was on par with the 2015 earthquake that left much of the country in ruins. Towns, villages and highways were completely wiped out and there are some areas still disconnected.” Khanal confirmed that Nepal’s ministry of finance and ministry of environment had written a joint letter to the UN’s fund for responding to loss and damage – which was set up in 2022 in line with the Paris climate agreement – to request $20m in climate-related damages.
This affects all of humanity.” For Nepal, the disaster was particularly worrying because it was “one of the strongest warning signals that we’ve experienced of what’s to come”, he said. According to some estimates, the total damage caused by the floods will be upwards of $5bn, though Khanal said it could be even higher. Upwards of 20,000 homes will probably have to be rebuilt, as well as the main highway.
Villages built in vulnerable areas along the river, some of which washed away entirely, may have to be relocated to higher, safer ground. While Khanal initially singled out India and China as countries that should step in to help – while avoiding mention of the US, which is the world’s biggest polluter – he rowed back on those comments, saying: “It is not just about shifting the blame to one or the other country, it’s about us all working together.” He emphasised that the compensation demand was also meant to act as a “wake-up call for the global community to establish a more robust mechanism to help vulnerable and small economies like Nepal”. The UN has admitted the loss and damage fund is already facing a “significant financing gap”.
The fund has already received requests totalling $2.8bn from about 119 countries, but so far only around $400m has been given by the international community. The US has given just $17m, after Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris agreement. Khanal acknowledged there were “political challenges” in getting Nepal the climate compensation it was demanding.
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