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 joint letter to the UN’s fund for responding to loss and damage to request US$20 million in climate-related damages.
“We have contributed so little to climate change,” he says.
“It is imperative for those in the global community who benefit from larger, much more polluting economies, and whose historical contribution to greenhouse gases is much bigger than ours, to accept a shared responsibility. This affects all of humanity.”
“The global community should not see this as a one-off disaster; it should be viewed in the context of the changing climate in the Himalayas,” he says.
“We know it is going to be a recurring scenario that more and more communities, not just in Nepal but around the world, will have to face.”
According to some estimates, the total damage caused by the floods will be upwards of US$5 billion, though Khanal says it could be even higher.
– The Guardian
