{"id":1052718,"date":"2026-09-09T09:39:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T09:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1052718\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T09:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T09:39:19","slug":"why-nepal-is-demanding-climate-justice-and-compensation-after-deadly-floods-climate-crisis-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1052718\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Nepal is demanding climate justice and compensation after deadly floods | Climate Crisis News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nepal is demanding \u201cclimate justice\u201d and $20m in compensation after the recent devastating floods<\/a> in the country and China\u2019s Tibet region, which led to the deaths and disappearances of thousands of people.<\/p>\n

The catastrophe, which scientists say was caused by the effects of climate change, was triggered when part of a mountain glacier collapsed and a torrent of water and mud flooded down into Nepal\u2019s Rasuwa and Nuwakot regions, as well as into China\u2019s Tibet region on August 26. More than 1,300 people have been confirmed dead and more than 5,000 remain missing.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are paying the ultimate price for a global crisis we did not create,\u201d Nepal\u2019s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupport for Nepal should not be seen from an angle of aid or charity, but should be seen from the perspective of climate justice,\u201d he told the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the country\u2019s President Ramchandra Paudel made a similar demand during an address to the nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI make a heartfelt appeal to the international community not only to listen to the voices of ecologically vulnerable countries, including Nepal, but also to take concrete and effective steps to ensure climate justice for them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nepal\u2019s Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Environment have written a joint letter to the United Nations, which set up a fund to respond to loss and damage caused by climate change in 2022 in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate, with a request for $20m in damages.<\/p>\n

The UN\u2019s Loss and Damage Fund is, however, facing a $2.8bn funding gap as it prepares to approve its first climate recovery projects.<\/p>\n

\"Interactive_Nepal_Glacial_collapse_Aug27_2026\"<\/p>\n

\u2018Collective frustration\u2019<\/p>\n

Nepal\u2019s leaders may have a point.<\/p>\n

Nepal contributes less than 0.1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and generates most of its electricity from renewable sources of energy. Yet its geographical location in the Himalayas makes it particularly vulnerable to severe climate and weather events.<\/p>\n

Last month\u2019s catastrophic flooding in the country comes against a backdrop of rapid global warming and glacial loss across the Himalayas.<\/p>\n

Glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalaya mountain range \u2013 which spans Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan \u2013 lost ice 65 percent faster between 2011 and 2020 than during the previous decade.<\/p>\n

Nepal\u2019s glaciers, which are sandwiched between two major carbon emitters \u2013 India and China \u2013 have lost close to one-third of their ice volume in roughly three decades due to global warming, the United Nations said in 2023.<\/p>\n

Tanuja Pandey, a Nepal-based climate activist and lawyer, said there is collective frustration behind Nepal\u2019s demand for climate justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople here feel the world often pays attention to Nepal only when a climate disaster becomes impossible to ignore. It is deeply painful to people here that global attention intensifies when headlines report thousands of people dead or missing and in the end, their suffering does not generate any urgency to fight climate change,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Shreya KC, a 28-year-old Nepali climate activist, said there is profound anger and sadness among people in Nepal who say that they must no longer continue to suffer the impact of climate change, which, as they see it, other countries are responsible for.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hometown is in Solukhumbu in eastern Nepal,\u201d the activist told Al Jazeera. \u201cIt is a district of mountains and is also home to the world\u2019s highest mountain, Mount Everest, and my home is also downstream. After the glacial collapse happened two weeks ago, people in my region have realised that this can now happen anywhere in Nepal since the Himalayas are warming and glaciers are melting faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Nepal has been actively fighting climate change, Shreya KC said she herself has been involved in projects in the country that focus on clean hydropower generation, forestry and other such climate advocacy programmes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of other countries,\u201d she said, \u201ctoday Nepalis are the ones most impacted by climate change. So people want justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVE[Planet Labs PBC]Is there such a thing as \u2018climate justice\u2019?<\/p>\n

According to preliminary estimates from Nepal\u2019s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, the country\u2019s property, housing and infrastructure losses in the floods amount to some $2.56bn.<\/p>\n

But claiming compensation under a notion of \u201cclimate justice\u201d won\u2019t be straightforward, according to Joyeeta Gupta, a professor of Environment and Development in the Global South at the University of Amsterdam.<\/p>\n

According to<\/a> the United Nations, \u201c\u2018climate justice\u2019 is the moral and ethical principle that seeks to address the disproportionate impact of climate change on vulnerable communities and future generations\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI define it as a system of justice where others\u2019 perspectives are taken into account, and no harm is caused to others,\u201d Gupta told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Nepal is a country that has very low emissions, she said, but is facing the brunt of climate issues which it never created. \u201cThat is reason enough for Nepal to claim climate justice,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

But, practically speaking, can it? In the pre-1990 period, there was a lot of discussion among nations about the need for large emitters to compensate those that would be harmed, Gupta noted. But soon after that, the term \u201ccompensation\u201d disappeared from the agenda of international climate treaties, which turned more to discussions about providing assistance to developing countries that need to tackle climate change instead.<\/p>\n

In a July 2025 advisory opinion<\/a> on climate change, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared that \u201call nations have binding legal duties under international law to prevent significant climate harm\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ICJ\u2019s advisory opinion on climate change also says that states breaching their international climate obligations can be required to make full reparations, including financial compensation to \u201cinjured states\u201d or countries impacted by climate change caused by the actions of other countries.<\/p>\n

While the ICJ\u2019s opinion is not legally binding, Gupta said, it is a statement in international law that could support Nepal\u2019s government\u2019s international appeal for climate justice and compensation.<\/p>\n

\u2018No climate justice without internal justice\u2019<\/p>\n

Nepal\u2019s rapper-turned-prime minister, Balendra Shah, is scheduled to travel to New York on September 22 to address the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 24. His country\u2019s appeal for climate justice is expected to be a key part of his address.<\/p>\n

For climate activist Shreya KC, while UN meetings and international conferences on climate change may hold some weight when it comes to discussing climate disasters, right now, what Nepal needs is money.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo much of our money allotted for healthcare, education and to transition into a more developed nation is now being spent on fighting climate change. So countries who are causing emissions, especially from the global north, need to commit more money to the UN\u2019s Loss and Damage Fund,\u201d she said, adding that money from that fund should be disbursed to vulnerable communities in need, not as a loan but as compensation for bearing the brunt of climate change.<\/p>\n

Pandey noted that this is not the first time a climate disaster has occurred in Nepal and said that the new government, which came into power in March this year on the back of Nepal\u2019s Gen Z protests last year<\/a>, has also failed to make climate a priority in its budget.<\/p>\n

While it is a good sign that Nepali politicians are appealing for international climate justice, she said, they also need to address the country\u2019s internal development model to fight climate change in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no climate justice without internal justice within the country itself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that even in our development, partners and investors stop treating climate resilience as an optional addition to development in Nepal just because we are economically vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvesting in Nepal without investing in sustainability is simply a bad investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, Nepal declared a national day of mourning to remember the more than 1,300 people who are known to have died in last month\u2019s catastrophic floods. Thousands more are still missing.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s President Paudel used the opportunity to call on people to unite.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a time for division. Nor is it a time to blame one another or become entangled in political disputes and confrontation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a time to demonstrate national unity and solidarity. It is also a time for reconstruction, rehabilitation and economic recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Gupta says Nepal\u2019s biggest challenge right now is establishing a precedent for compensation for climate change-related disasters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was recently a glacial collapse in the country, but soon, it will become a bigger issue as time goes on because the monsoon patterns will change, the sea level will rise,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As many other developing countries \u2013 notably island states that face being submerged altogether \u2013 are also likely facing similar climate change challenges, the damage could become huge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is going to be a very big reason why many rich countries will probably be unwilling to pay compensation, because that would set a precedent for future issues,\u201d Gupta said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the issues countries like Nepal are facing are a very strong argument to try and convince the whole world to accelerate action to phase out fossil fuels and fight climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nepal is demanding \u201cclimate justice\u201d and $20m in compensation after the recent devastating floods in the country and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1052719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[3774,10109,33025,746,3095,8072,5173,65805,50,527,313,103],"class_list":["post-1052718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-asia","tag-climate","tag-climate-crisis","tag-environment","tag-features","tag-floods","tag-infrastructure","tag-nepal","tag-news","tag-water","tag-weather","tag-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117240423842063183","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1052718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1052719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1052718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1052718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1052718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}