Nepal seeks climate compensation from US, China, India over deadly floods

Nepal has sought climate compensation for the deadly floods that devastated parts of the country, naming China, India and the United States among the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters and arguing that vulnerable nations should not be left to bear the costs of emissions they contributed little to producing.

At least 1,127 people have died and around 3,900 remain missing, according to figures cited in reports on the August 26 disaster in the Bhotekoshi river basin. The floods devastated parts of Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading in Bagmati province, damaging homes, roads, bridges and hydropower projects.

Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said Kathmandu was shifting its approach from seeking aid to demanding climate justice and compensation.

“We are shifting our diplomatic framework from aid to justice and compensation,” Khanal said in an interview with Kantipur TV.

He said China, the US and India had a responsibility towards vulnerable countries facing the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions, arguing that the issue should not be treated simply as a humanitarian crisis requiring donations.

“This is not a matter of charity; it is a matter of legal and moral liability,” Khanal said.

Balen Shah may raise demand at UN

Nepal is considering sending Prime Minister Balendra ‘Balen’ Shah to New York for the 81st United Nations General Assembly, where he could personally highlight the floods and press the case for climate justice and compensation.

The UNGA begins on September 8, with the general debate scheduled for later in September. Foreign Minister Khanal had initially been expected to represent Nepal.

Kathmandu has also formally approached the UN-backed Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage for urgent financial assistance. The request seeks support for the consequences of the disaster, including reconstruction and resettlement.

Nepal is expected to raise the issue at other international forums as well, while its embassies have been instructed to brief governments and donors on the country’s requirements.

Nepal says it needs billions for reconstruction

The scale of destruction is expected to impose a huge financial burden on the Himalayan nation. Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle told Reuters last week that Nepal could require $4-5 billion to rebuild infrastructure destroyed by the floods — almost 10 per cent of the country’s economy.

Beyond financial assistance, Kathmandu is seeking specialised support including tunnel-rescue teams, forensic experts and Bailey bridges.

Nepal initially declined foreign assistance for search and rescue, saying its own agencies could manage the operation. It later agreed to receive specialised teams and equipment from India, China and other countries as the scale of the disaster became clearer.

What caused the floods?

The catastrophic flooding surged through the Bhotekoshi river basin on August 26. Initial assessments have pointed to a massive rock-and-ice avalanche, unstable glaciers and changing conditions in the high-altitude Himalayan region as possible factors.

The precise trigger, however, is still being investigated. A direct scientific attribution of an individual flood to human-induced climate change requires detailed study.

The disaster occurred in a fragile, high-seismic region and has also prompted concerns about infrastructure, including Chinese-built projects, in the Himalayas.

Nepal has nevertheless framed the catastrophe within the broader climate crisis, pointing to its negligible contribution to global emissions and its exposure to melting glaciers, unstable mountain slopes and glacial floods.

The country argues that Himalayan nations such as Nepal face disproportionate consequences from a warming planet even though their contribution to global emissions is comparatively small.

China, the US and India are the three largest greenhouse gas emitters in absolute terms, according to the European Commission's latest EDGAR estimates cited in the report. But emissions responsibility varies significantly when measured per capita and historically.

India, for instance, has consistently argued that climate obligations must take into account historical emissions, per-capita emissions, development needs and the greater responsibility of countries that industrialised earlier.

For Nepal, however, the immediate issue is the enormous cost of recovering from a disaster that has killed more than 1,100 people and left thousands unaccounted for.

Khanal described the floods as a “Himalayan Tsunami” and argued that the consequences would extend beyond Nepal because Himalayan glaciers feed river systems on which billions of people across South Asia depend.

Kathmandu's message is increasingly clear: countries that have contributed least to global warming should not be expected to repeatedly finance their own rescue, reconstruction and recovery from climate-related disasters.