Nepal says big polluters must ‘wake up’ as it calls for climate compensation over flood disaster — SkimNews
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- Nepal's Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal announced that Nepal's finance and environment ministries sent a joint letter to the UN's loss and damage fund requesting $20 million, calling on the world's biggest polluters to "wake up" and accept shared responsibility.
- The late-August floods, triggered when a melting glacier partially collapsed and unleashed a landslide and flash flood through Chinese-controlled Tibet and Nepal, killed more than 1,300 people with over 5,500 still missing after 12 days of rescue operations.
- Nepal contributes less than 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet its Himalayan mountains have lost nearly a third of their ice in 30 years and are warming nearly 50% faster than the global average.
- The UN's loss and damage fund, established in 2022 under the Paris agreement, has received requests totaling $2.8 billion from 119 countries but only about $400 million has been disbursed; Khanal conceded Nepal's $20 million ask is "obviously not nearly enough" against estimated damage of $5 billion or more.
- The United States, the world's largest historical emitter, has contributed just $17 million to the fund — a figure made more stark by Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Paris agreement.
- Khanal initially singled out neighboring India and China — both among the world's biggest emitters — before walking back those comments, insisting the demand is a "wake-up call" for a broader mechanism to help vulnerable small economies.
- Khanal rebuffed allegations that China failed to share data or warn of the impending disaster, saying neither Nepalese nor Chinese scientists knew the specific glacier collapse was imminent until it happened.
Why it matters: Nepal's $20 million request lands at a UN fund that has received $2.8 billion in asks from 119 countries but disbursed only $400 million — a structural shortfall that exposes how the Paris agreement's signature climate-victim compensation mechanism remains hollow. The US, the world's largest historical emitter, has chipped in just $17 million, underscoring how Himalayan communities warming 50% faster than the global average face a compensation architecture with no real money behind it.
Ask SkimNews
