Nepal is seeking $20m (£15m) from the UN's loss and damage fund to help rebuild after a glacier collapse on the Nepal-Tibet border killed at least 1,300 people and left more than 5,000 missing. The request follows the first academic study linking the disaster to fossil fuel pollution, which scientists say destabilised the mountain environment.
Disaster toll and ongoing search efforts
Three weeks after the glacier collapse, Nepal continues to grapple with the aftermath. While global attention has faded, the country faces an appalling tragedy: over 5,000 people are missing, some trapped in tunnels connected to 13 hydropower plants damaged by the floods. On Wednesday, four bodies were recovered from one such tunnel, with search operations still underway. Families of the missing are desperate for news, with photographs of the missing posted on a wall at Tribhuvan University teaching hospital in Kathmandu.
The disaster struck at the end of a summer of record-breaking temperatures, including in the Himalayas, where scientists have long warned of melting glaciers' devastating consequences for millions who rely on them for water.
Climate attribution and rebuilding costs
Last week, Nepal's foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, announced the country would ask the UN's loss and damage fund for $20m (£15m) towards a total rebuilding cost of around $5bn (£3.75bn), including the replacement of up to 20,000 homes. The application will now include findings from scientists at Imperial College London and international collaborators on the World Weather Attribution project, who found that atmospheric heating worsened several drivers of the glacier fall. While not the sole cause, fossil fuel pollution was judged to have destabilised the geology of the mountain environment.
Nepal's leaders, though inexperienced—the government has only been in power for six months following protests that toppled the previous administration—are right to insist that other countries contribute to recovery. Nepal is responsible for less than 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet its people bear the brunt of destructive forces resulting from resource, energy, and economic development decisions made elsewhere, similar to small island nations in the Caribbean and Pacific threatened by sea level rises and tropical storms.
Funding challenges and global climate finance
However, the likelihood of quick payment is low. Nearly 120 countries have already submitted claims totalling nearly $3bn (£2.2bn), far exceeding the fund's current estimated $400m (£300m) capacity. This shortfall is partly attributed to Donald Trump, who withdrew the US from the Paris climate agreement and pressured the World Bank to drop its climate finance goals. Other donors have also failed to meet targets.
Nepal's plight should serve as a wake-up call to governments and institutions to make a global climate finance system work, including in the aftermath of disasters. Turkey, which hosts the next climate summit in November, has positioned itself as a champion for developing countries. Boosting the loss and damage fund must be prioritised at those talks if climate justice is to remain a credible goal.
