Why Nepal is demanding climate justice and compensation after deadly floods

Nepal is demanding “climate justice” and $20 million in compensation after recent devastating floods in the country and China’s Tibet region have left thousands dead and missing.

The disaster, which scientists say was caused by the effects of climate change, occurred on August 26 when part of a mountain glacier collapsed and sent torrents of water and mud into the Rasuwa and Nuwakot regions of Nepal, as well as the Tibet region of China. More than 1,300 people have been confirmed dead and more than 5,000 are missing.

“We are paying the ultimate price for a global crisis that we did not create,” Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said last week.

“Support for Nepal should not be seen in terms of aid or charity, but in terms of climate justice,” he told news agency AFP.

On Monday, President Ramchandra Paudel made a similar demand during an address to the nation.

“I sincerely urge the international community not only to listen to the voices of environmentally vulnerable countries, including Nepal, but also to take concrete and effective steps to ensure climate justice for them,” he said.

Nepal’s Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Environment have written a joint letter to the United Nations, which established a fund to respond to losses and damages caused by climate change in 2022 under the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, asking for $20 million in damages.

But the UN Loss and Damage Fund faces a $2.8 billion funding gap as it prepares to approve its first climate restoration projects.

“Collective disappointment”

Nepal’s leaders may be right.

Nepal accounts for less than 0.1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and generates most of its electricity from renewable energy sources. However, its geographical location in the Himalayas makes it particularly vulnerable to harsh climates and weather events.

The country’s catastrophic flooding last month comes amid rapid global warming and melting glaciers in the Himalayas.

Glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalaya mountain range, which spans Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan, lost ice 65 percent faster between 2011 and 2020 than in the previous decade.

Nepal’s glaciers, which are sandwiched between two major carbon emitters India and China, have lost nearly one-third of their ice volume in about three decades due to global warming, the United Nations said in 2023.

Tanuja Pandey, a climate activist and lawyer from Nepal, said Nepal’s demand for climate justice is causing collective frustration.

“People here feel that the world often only pays attention to Nepal when the climate emergency becomes impossible to ignore. It is very painful for people here that global attention increases when headlines report thousands of people dead or missing, and in the end their suffering does not generate any urgency in the fight against climate change,” she told Al Jazeera.

Shreya KS, a 28-year-old Nepalese climate activist, said there is deep anger and sadness among people in Nepal who say they should no longer suffer the consequences of climate change, which they believe other countries are responsible for.

“My hometown is in Solukhumbu in eastern Nepal,” the activist told Al Jazeera. “This is a mountainous region and is also home to the world’s tallest mountain, Everest, and my home is also downstream. After the glacier collapse two weeks ago, people in my region realized that this could now happen anywhere in Nepal as the Himalayas warm up and glaciers melt faster.”

As Nepal actively fights climate change, Shreya K.S. said she herself has been involved in projects in the country aimed at generating clean hydroelectric power, forestry and other similar climate protection programs.

“Because of other countries,” she said, “Nepals are suffering the most from climate change today. That’s why people want justice.”

Is there such a thing as “climate justice”?

Preliminary estimates by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority of Nepal put the country’s property, housing and infrastructure losses due to floods at around $2.56 billion.

But demanding compensation under the umbrella of “climate justice” will not be easy, according to Joyeta Gupta, professor of environment and development in the global South at the University of Amsterdam.

According to the United Nations, “climate justice is a moral and ethical principle that aims to address the disproportionate impact of climate change on vulnerable communities and future generations.”

“I define it as a system of justice in which the views of others are taken into account and no harm is done to others,” Gupta told Al Jazeera.

She said Nepal is a very low-emitting country but faces the brunt of climate problems that it never created. “This is enough reason for Nepal to demand climate justice,” she said.

But, practically speaking, is this so? In the period before 1990, there was a lot of discussion among countries about the need for large emitters to compensate those who would suffer, Gupta noted. But soon after, the term “offsets” disappeared from the agenda of international climate treaties, which shifted more to discussions about providing aid to developing countries that need to fight climate change instead.

In a July 2025 advisory opinion on climate change, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) stated that “all countries have binding legal obligations under international law to prevent significant climate harm.”

The International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on climate change also states that states that violate their international climate obligations may be required to pay full compensation, including financial compensation to “injured states,” or countries affected by climate change caused by the actions of other countries.

While the ICJ’s opinion has no legal force, Gupta said, it is a statement of international law that could support the Nepal government’s international call for climate justice and compensation.

“There is no climate justice without domestic justice.”

Nepali rapper-turned-Prime Minister Balendra Shah is scheduled to travel to New York on September 22 to perform at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 24. His country’s call for climate justice is expected to be a key part of his speech.

According to climate activist Shreya KS, while UN meetings and international climate change conferences may carry some weight when it comes to discussing climate disasters, Nepal needs money right now.

“A very large portion of our money allocated for health, education and the transition to a more developed country is now spent on fighting climate change. So countries that cause emissions, especially from the north of the planet, should allocate more money to the UN Loss and Damage Fund,” she said, adding that money from this fund should be allocated to needy vulnerable communities not as a loan, but as compensation for bearing the brunt of climate change.

Pandey noted that this is not the first time a climate disaster has struck Nepal and said the new government, which came to power in March this year amid Gen Z protests in Nepal last year, has also failed to make climate a priority in its budget.

While it is a good sign that Nepali politicians are calling for international climate justice, they also need to first address the country’s domestic development model to combat climate change, she said.

“Climate justice cannot happen without internal justice within the country itself,” she said.

“Even as we develop, I hope that partners and investors will stop viewing climate resilience as an optional add-on to Nepal’s development just because we are economically vulnerable.

“Investing in Nepal without investing in sustainable development is simply a bad investment.”

Nepal declared a national day of mourning on Monday to remember the more than 1,300 people known to have died in catastrophic floods last month. Thousands more people are still missing.

President Paudel took the opportunity and called on people to unite.

“This is not the time for divisions. This is not the time to blame each other or get involved in political disputes and confrontation,” he said.

“This is a time to demonstrate national unity and solidarity. It is also a time of reconstruction, rehabilitation and economic recovery.”

But Gupta says Nepal’s biggest challenge now is setting a precedent for compensation for climate change-related disasters.

“The country recently experienced a glacial collapse, but this will soon become a more serious problem over time because the monsoon pattern will change and sea levels will rise,” she said.

With many other developing countries – especially island nations at risk of complete submergence – also likely facing similar climate change challenges, the damage could be enormous.

“That would be a very big reason why a lot of rich countries would probably be reluctant to pay compensation because it would set a precedent for future problems,” Gupta said.

“But the challenges that countries like Nepal face are a very strong argument to try to persuade the world to accelerate action to phase out fossil fuels and combat climate change.”