KATHMANDU — Nepal is seeking climate-related compensation from major greenhouse-gas emitters following catastrophic flash floods that have reportedly killed more than 1,100 people and left thousands missing.
Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal says Nepal, despite contributing only a tiny share of global emissions, is suffering disproportionately from climate change through melting Himalayan glaciers and increasingly destructive mountain disasters.
Nepal is now shifting its international appeal from traditional disaster “aid” toward what it describes as climate justice and compensation. Khanal specifically pointed to major emitters including China, the United States and India, arguing that countries responsible for large shares of global emissions have a responsibility to help vulnerable nations bear climate-related losses.
“This is not a matter of charity,” Khanal said, describing compensation as a question of moral and legal responsibility.
Nepal has formally approached the international Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage for urgent financial assistance following the August 26 disaster in the Bhotekoshi River basin. Authorities say the full economic cost is still being assessed, but the destruction has overwhelmed Nepal’s immediate response capacity.
Kathmandu also warns that rapidly disappearing Himalayan glaciers are not solely a Nepali problem. Rivers originating in the Himalayan region provide water to vast populations across South Asia, making glacier loss a potential long-term threat to regional water and food security.
India, however, has long argued that climate responsibility must distinguish between developed countries with large historical emissions and developing economies with comparatively lower per-capita emissions and continuing development needs.
Nepal says it intends to take its demand for climate compensation to international forums, turning one of its worst natural disasters into a broader call for wealthy and major-emitting nations to pay more toward the mounting costs of climate change.