Nepal demands US$20m in climate compensation

This comes as a senior minister calls 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. Nepal foreign minister Shisir Khanal was forthright in his call for climate justice and says it is imperative the world’s biggest economies step 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 United Nations (UN) said Nepal’s mountains had lost close to a third of their ice in just over 30 years due to global heating. Khanal emphasises that the recent disaster was far more extreme than any flooding regularly seen during the monsoon season, and says the magnitude of damage is on par with the 2015 earthquake that left much of the country in ruins. “This felt like a tsunami that was coming from the Himalayas,” he says. “We experienced waves as high as 60, 70 feet, which were mixed with debris, mud, stones, rocks and came at the speed of almost 180km per hour. ” Khanal confirmed that Nepal’s ministry of finance and ministry of environment had written a…