Nepal plans to use a new study linking climate change to the deadly floods last month as the basis of a financial request from a United Nations fund. The BBC understands that Nepal hopes to claim around $20m (£15m) from the UN Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, which helps countries affected by climate change. Around 1,400 people have died in the disaster while 6,150 people remain missing in Nepal as of Wednesday, according official data.
The study by research group World Weather Attribution, published on Thursday, says climate change was a likely contributing factor in the avalanche of rock and ice that unleashed devastating floods on the Nepal-Tibet border last month. There was "absolutely no doubt that human-induced climate change played a role here in the preconditioning of the disaster", said Dr Friederike Otto, an Imperial College London climatologist who co-authored the study. Massive floods and landslides swept through border towns and villages in Nepal and Tibet, wiping out thousands of houses, destroying energy infrastructure and leaving thousands dead or missing.
Scientists say the floods were caused by a collapse of rock wall and glacier ice near the peak of Langtang Lirung, a mountain on Nepal's side of the Himalayas. The study said the disaster was the result of a "compound event" caused by rising temperatures, thinning glaciers, thawing permafrost and pre-existing geological weaknesses According to the study, July and August temperatures in the area were around 1.5C (2.7F) warmer "due to human influence on the climate". Meanwhile, glaciers in the region had also been thinning by about half a metre (1.6ft) a year, which could weaken existing fractures and increase instability.
Heavy snowfall last October and November also added to a large amount of meltwater early this year. Climate change, while not the only cause of the disaster, was a "destabilising factor acting on a pre-existing geological predisposition", the study said. In the wake of the floods, Nepal's leaders have said the country needs around $5bn (£3.7bn) to rebuild itself.
The UN Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, which came into operation last year, requires countries to submit evidence proving that the losses they faced were caused by climate change. Nepali officials had been preparing satellite and drone images, as well as preliminary reports, to back up its request to the fund. But the World Weather Attribution report is now the strongest evidence for their claim that climate change was a significant factor in the collapse of rock and ice at Langtang Lirung, authorities say.
The report "will be the main basis of our claim as it has detailed what role climate has played in this disaster," said Maheshwar Dhakal, spokesperson for Nepal's Ministry of Agriculture, Forest and Environment. Nepali authorities have called for global efforts to tackle climate change, saying the country is one of the lowest contributors to greenhouse emissions yet one of the most vulnerable places to the effects of global warming. In his first foreign trip as Nepali Prime Minister, Balendra Shah is set to appear at United Nations General Assembly in New York next week to talk about the recent disaster and climate justice.
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