Nepal demands $20 million from big polluters after glacier collapse kills 1,300

Nepal's Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal has a blunt message for the world's largest emitters: "wake up" and pay for the disaster you helped cause.

Late last month, a partial glacier collapse triggered landslides and flash floods across Tibet and Nepal, killing over 1,300 people and leaving 5,500 missing. Khanal described the wall of water as "a tsunami from the Himalayas," moving at roughly 180 km/h and wiping out towns, villages, and highways in its path. Damage estimates now exceed $5 billion, with more than 20,000 homes needing to be rebuilt.

Nepal is responsible for less than 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Its Himalayan glaciers, meanwhile, have lost roughly a third of their ice over the past 30 years, warming about 50% faster than the global average, a trend scientists link directly to emissions from far larger economies, including neighboring India and China.

Khanal is seeking $20 million through the UN's Loss and Damage Fund, established under the Paris Agreement specifically for cases like this. But the fund itself is badly short of money: 119 countries have submitted a combined $2.8 billion in requests, against roughly $400 million actually delivered so far.

Reporting by İklim Haber. Translated and adapted with attribution. Original: https://www.iklimhaber.org/nepalden-iklim-tazminati-talebi-buyuk-kirleticiler-artik-uyanmali/