Climate & Environment
Nepal Seeks $20 Million in Climate Compensation Following Deadly Glacial Flood Disaster
Nepal is calling for international climate justice and $20 million in compensation after devastating floods killed more than 1,300 people and left over 5,000 missing in the country and China's Tibet region. The disaster, which scientists attribute to climate change, occurred on August 26 when part of a mountain glacier collapsed, sending a torrent of water and mud into Nepal's Rasuwa and Nuwakot regions and into Tibet.
Nepal's Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said last week that the country is "paying the ultimate price for a global crisis we did not create." He told AFP that support for Nepal should be viewed through the lens of climate justice rather than charity. President Ramchandra Paudel echoed this sentiment on Monday, urging the international community to take concrete steps to ensure climate justice for ecologically vulnerable nations.
Nepal's Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Environment have jointly written to the United Nations requesting $20 million from the Loss and Damage Fund, established in 2022 under the Paris Agreement. However, that fund currently faces a $2.8 billion funding shortfall as it prepares to approve its first recovery projects.
Nepal contributes less than 0.1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and relies heavily on renewable energy, yet its Himalayan location leaves it highly exposed to climate disasters. Glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalaya range lost ice 65 percent faster between 2011 and 2020 than in the previous decade, and Nepal's glaciers have lost nearly a third of their volume over roughly 30 years, according to a 2023 UN report.
Tanuja Pandey, a Nepal-based climate lawyer and activist, said there is widespread frustration that global attention to Nepal's climate struggles only intensifies after disasters cause mass casualties. Shreya KC, a 28-year-old climate activist from Solukhumbu district—home to Mount Everest—said local communities now fear similar glacial collapses could happen elsewhere in Nepal as the Himalayas continue warming.
Preliminary estimates from Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority put property, housing and infrastructure losses from the floods at approximately $2.56 billion. However, Joyeeta Gupta, a professor of Environment and Development in the Global South at the University of Amsterdam, said pursuing compensation under climate justice principles faces obstacles. She noted that discussions of