VOIWORLD/New Delhi: Nepal has launched a diplomatic campaign to seek climate-related compensation from major greenhouse-gas emitters following the deadly flash floods that devastated parts of the country, arguing that financial support should be based on “moral liability” rather than charity.
Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said Nepal contributes virtually negligible greenhouse-gas emissions but is facing disproportionate consequences of global warming, including rapid glacier melt and increasingly severe disasters in the Himalayas.
“We are paying the ultimate price for a global crisis we did not create,” Khanal said in an interview with Kantipur TV, excerpts of which were published by The Kathmandu Post on Tuesday. He described the recent floods and other extreme mountain events as direct consequences of climate change.
Khanal said Nepal was shifting its diplomatic approach from seeking traditional “aid” to demanding “justice and compensation”.
“This is not a matter of charity; it is a matter of legal and moral liability,” he said.
The foreign minister said Nepal would raise the issue “with absolute firmness and clarity” at international forums and seek compensation for climate-related losses suffered by vulnerable countries.
Khanal identified China, the United States and India as the world’s three largest greenhouse-gas emitters and said they carry a “historical responsibility” towards countries such as Nepal that are highly vulnerable to climate change.
He warned that the consequences extend far beyond Nepal’s borders.
“This is a matter of civilisational survival,” Khanal said, arguing that the disappearance of Himalayan glaciers could threaten the water security of more than two billion people across South Asia who depend on rivers including the Ganges and Trishuli.
“We are advocating not just for Nepal, but for the survival of South Asian civilisation,” he said.
Khanal also said Nepal’s finance ministry had formally sent a climate compensation claim letter to international partners.
Separately, Nepal has approached the board of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage for urgent financial assistance following the catastrophic flash floods in the Bhotekoshi river basin on August 26.
The fund was established at the UN climate summit COP27 in 2022 and operationalised at COP28 to help vulnerable developing countries respond to climate-related loss and damage.
A letter jointly signed by Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle and Forests and Agriculture Minister Geeta Chaudhary sought urgent assistance, citing extensive loss of life, displacement and destruction of homes and critical infrastructure.
“The full scale of economic and non-economic loss and damage has yet to be determined,” the letter said, adding that preliminary assessments indicated the disaster’s impact was extensive and beyond Nepal’s immediate response capacity.
India, meanwhile, has consistently stressed the principle of climate equity, arguing that climate responsibilities must reflect countries’ historical emissions, development needs and respective capacities.
New Delhi has also supported international efforts to address loss and damage in vulnerable developing countries while maintaining that developed nations should provide the financial resources needed to help poorer countries cope with the effects of climate change.
Nepal’s latest demand puts the question of climate justice at the centre of its response to the disaster, as the Himalayan nation seeks international financial support for losses it says are increasingly being driven by a global crisis it contributed little to creating.
