Why Nepal is demanding climate justice and compensation after deadly floods

Nepal's politicians have said the country is bearing the brunt for climate change caused by other nations.

People look at photographs of those who are missing on a wall outside Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital following deadly August 26 flash floods and mudslides, in Kathmandu, Nepal [File: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters]

Nepal is demanding “climate justice” and $20m in compensation after the recent devastating floods in the country and China’s Tibet region, which led to the deaths and disappearances of thousands of people.

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’s Rasuwa and Nuwakot regions, as well as into China’s Tibet region on August 26. More than 1,300 people have been confirmed dead and more than 5,000 remain missing.

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

“Support for Nepal should not be seen from an angle of aid or charity, but should be seen from the perspective of climate justice,” he told the AFP news agency.

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

“I 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,” he said.

Nepal’s 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.

The UN’s Loss and Damage Fund is, however, facing a $2.8bn funding gap as it prepares to approve its first climate recovery projects.

‘Collective frustration’

Nepal’s leaders may have a point.

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.

Last month’s catastrophic flooding in the country comes against a backdrop of rapid global warming and glacial loss across the Himalayas.

Glaciers across 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 during the previous decade.

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

Tanuja Pandey, a Nepal-based climate activist and lawyer, said there is collective frustration behind Nepal’s demand for climate justice.

“People 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,” she told Al Jazeera.

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.

“My hometown is in Solukhumbu in eastern Nepal,” the activist told Al Jazeera. “It is a district of mountains and is also home to the world’s 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.”

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.

“Because of other countries,” she said, “today Nepalis are the ones most impacted by climate change. So people want justice.”

Is there such a thing as ‘climate justice’?

According to preliminary estimates from Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, the country’s property, housing and infrastructure losses in the floods amount to some $2.56bn.

But claiming compensation under a notion of “climate justice” won’t be straightforward, according to Joyeeta Gupta, a professor of Environment and Development in the Global South at the University of Amsterdam.

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

“I define it as a system of justice where others’ perspectives are taken into account, and no harm is caused to others,” Gupta told Al Jazeera.

Nepal is a country that has very low emissions, she said, but is facing the brunt of climate issues which it never created. “That is reason enough for Nepal to claim climate justice,” she noted.

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 “compensation” 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.

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

The ICJ’s 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 “injured states” or countries impacted by climate change caused by the actions of other countries.

While the ICJ’s opinion is not legally binding, Gupta said, it is a statement in international law that could support Nepal’s government’s international appeal for climate justice and compensation.

‘No climate justice without internal justice’

Nepal’s 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’s appeal for climate justice is expected to be a key part of his address.

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.

“So 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’s Loss and Damage Fund,” 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.

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’s Gen Z protests last year , has also failed to make climate a priority in its budget.

While it is a good sign that Nepali politicians are appealing for international climate justice, she said, they also need to address the country’s internal development model to fight climate change in the first place.

“There is no climate justice without internal justice within the country itself,” she said.

“I 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.

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

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’s catastrophic floods. Thousands more are still missing.

The country’s President Paudel used the opportunity to call on people to unite.

“This is not a time for division. Nor is it a time to blame one another or become entangled in political disputes and confrontation,” he said.

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

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

“It 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,” she said.

As many other developing countries – notably island states that face being submerged altogether – are also likely facing similar climate change challenges, the damage could become huge.

“That 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,” Gupta said.

“But 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.”

尼泊尔政界人士表示，该国正在承受其他国家造成的气候变化带来的冲击。

在尼泊尔加德满都，人们看着特里布万大学教学医院外墙上张贴的失踪者照片，这些失踪者是在8月26日致命的山洪和泥石流灾害中丧生的。[图片：Athit Perawongmetha/路透社]

尼泊尔要求“气候正义”和 2000 万美元的赔偿，此前该国和中国西藏地区遭受了毁灭性洪水，导致数千人死亡和失踪。

科学家称，这场灾难是由气候变化的影响造成的。8月26日，尼泊尔一座山地冰川部分崩塌，引发的洪水和泥石流涌入尼泊尔的拉苏瓦和努瓦科特地区以及中国的西藏地区。目前已确认超过1300人死亡，超过5000人失踪。

图1/3：中国和尼泊尔洪灾致1300多人死亡，联合国呼吁全球提供援助

尼泊尔为洪灾中1300多名遇难者举行哀悼日（共3条记录，此为第2条）

列表 3（共 3 项）“限制超调、达到峰值、下降”：应对气候变化的新全球目标？

“我们正在为一场我们并未造成的全球危机付出惨痛的代价，”尼泊尔外交部长希希尔·卡纳尔上周表示。

“对尼泊尔的支持不应从援助或慈善的角度来看待，而应从气候正义的角度来看待，”他告诉法新社。

周一，该国总统拉姆钱德拉·鲍德尔在向全国发表讲话时也提出了类似的要求。

他说：“我衷心呼吁国际社会不仅要倾听包括尼泊尔在内的生态脆弱国家的声音，还要采取切实有效的措施，确保这些国家获得气候正义。”

尼泊尔财政部和环境部联名致信联合国，请求联合国根据 2015 年《巴黎气候协定》设立基金，以应对 2022 年气候变化造成的损失和损害，并要求提供 2000 万美元的赔偿金。

然而，联合国损失与损害基金在准备批准其首批气候恢复项目时，面临着 28 亿美元的资金缺口。

“集体挫败感”

尼泊尔领导人的说法或许有道理。

尼泊尔温室气体排放量占全球总量的不到0.1%，其大部分电力来自可再生能源。然而，由于其地处喜马拉雅山脉，因此极易受到极端气候和天气事件的影响。

上个月该国发生的灾难性洪水，正值全球变暖加剧和喜马拉雅山脉冰川消融之际。

横跨阿富汗、孟加拉国、不丹、中国、印度、缅甸、尼泊尔和巴基斯坦的兴都库什-喜马拉雅山脉的冰川，在 2011 年至 2020 年间的消融速度比前十年快了 65%。

联合国在 2023 年表示，尼泊尔的冰川位于印度和中国这两个主要碳排放国之间，由于全球变暖，在短短三十年间，尼泊尔冰川的冰量减少了近三分之一。

尼泊尔气候活动家兼律师塔努贾·潘迪表示，尼泊尔要求气候正义的背后是民众的集体挫败感。

她告诉半岛电视台：“这里的人们感觉，只有当气候灾难变得无法忽视时，世界才会关注尼泊尔。令这里的人们深感痛心的是，当新闻头条报道成千上万人死亡或失踪时，全球的关注度才会提高，但最终，他们的苦难并没有促使人们更加迫切地采取行动应对气候变化。”

28岁的尼泊尔气候活动家Shreya KC表示，尼泊尔人民感到深深的愤怒和悲伤，他们认为自己不应该再继续遭受气候变化的影响，而气候变化是其他国家造成的。

“我的家乡在尼泊尔东部的索卢昆布地区，”这位活动人士告诉半岛电视台。“那里是山区，也是世界最高峰珠穆朗玛峰的所在地，我的家就在珠峰下游。两周前冰川崩塌后，我们地区的人们意识到，随着喜马拉雅山脉变暖和冰川加速融化，这种情况现在可能发生在尼泊尔的任何地方。”

Shreya KC 表示，虽然尼泊尔一直在积极应对气候变化，但她本人也参与了该国的一些项目，这些项目侧重于清洁水力发电、林业和其他气候倡导项目。

她说：“因为其他国家的遭遇，如今尼泊尔人受气候变化的影响最大。所以人们想要讨回公道。”

是否存在“气候正义”这种东西？

根据尼泊尔国家减灾和管理局的初步估计，该国在洪灾中遭受的财产、住房和基础设施损失约为 25.6 亿美元。

但阿姆斯特丹大学全球南方环境与发展教授乔伊塔·古普塔表示，根据“气候正义”的概念提出赔偿要求并非易事。

根据联合国的说法，“‘气候正义’是一项道德和伦理原则，旨在解决气候变化对弱势群体和子孙后代造成的不成比例的影响”。

古普塔告诉半岛电视台：“我将其定义为一种司法体系，在这种体系中，他人的观点会被考虑在内，并且不会对他人造成伤害。”

她表示，尼泊尔是一个排放量极低的国家，却承受着它从未造成的气候问题的重压。“这足以成为尼泊尔要求气候正义的理由，”她指出。

但实际上，真的可行吗？古普塔指出，在1990年以前，各国曾就大型排放国是否需要补偿受害国展开过广泛讨论。但此后不久，“补偿”一词便从国际气候条约的议程中消失，取而代之的是如何向需要应对气候变化的发展中国家提供援助。

在 2025 年 7 月关于气候变化的咨询意见中，国际法院 (ICJ) 宣布“所有国家根据国际法都有约束性的法律义务，以防止造成重大的气候损害”。

国际法院关于气候变化的咨询意见还指出，违反其国际气候义务的国家可能被要求作出全面赔偿，包括向“受害国”或因其他国家的行为而受到气候变化影响的国家提供经济补偿。

古普塔表示，虽然国际法院的意见不具有法律约束力，但它是国际法上的一项声明，可以支持尼泊尔政府向国际社会提出的气候正义和赔偿请求。

“没有内部正义，就没有气候正义”

尼泊尔说唱歌手出身的总理巴伦德拉·沙阿计划于9月22日前往纽约，并于9月24日在联合国大会第81届会议上发表讲话。预计尼泊尔对气候正义的呼吁将是他讲话的重要组成部分。

气候活动家 Shreya KC 认为，虽然联合国会议和国际气候变化大会在讨论气候灾害方面可能具有一定的影响力，但目前尼泊尔最需要的是资金。

“我们拨给医疗保健、教育和向更发达国家转型的大部分资金现在都花在了应对气候变化上。因此，造成排放的国家，特别是来自全球北方的国家，需要向联合国损失与损害基金投入更多资金，”她说道。她还补充说，该基金的资金应该发放给有需要的弱势群体，不是以贷款的形式，而是作为对他们承受气候变化冲击的补偿。

潘迪指出，这并非尼泊尔第一次发生气候灾难，并表示，今年 3 月在尼泊尔 Z 世代去年抗议活动的支持下上台的新政府，也未能将气候问题列为预算中的优先事项。

她表示，虽然尼泊尔政治家呼吁国际气候正义是一个好兆头，但他们也需要首先解决该国的内部发展模式问题，才能应对气候变化。

“如果国家内部没有正义，就没有气候正义，”她说。

“我希望，即使在我们的发展过程中，合作伙伴和投资者也不要因为我们在经济上很脆弱，就把气候适应能力视为尼泊尔发展的一个可有可无的附加项。

“在尼泊尔投资而不投资可持续发展，简直就是糟糕的投资。”

周一，尼泊尔宣布全国哀悼日，悼念上个月在毁灭性洪灾中遇难的1300多人。另有数千人仍然失踪。

该国总统保德尔借此机会呼吁人民团结起来。

他说：“现在不是分裂的时候，也不是互相指责或卷入政治争端和对抗的时候。”

“现在是展现民族团结和凝聚力的时刻，也是重建、复兴和经济复苏的时刻。”

但古普塔表示，尼泊尔目前面临的最大挑战是为气候变化相关灾害的赔偿树立先例。

“最近该国发生了冰川崩塌，但随着时间的推移，这将很快成为一个更大的问题，因为季风模式会发生变化，海平面会上升，”她说。

许多其他发展中国家——特别是面临被完全淹没的岛屿国家——也可能面临类似的气候变化挑战，因此造成的损失可能会非常巨大。

古普塔说：“这可能是许多富裕国家不愿意支付赔偿金的一个重要原因，因为这将为未来的类似问题树立先例。”

“但是，像尼泊尔这样的国家所面临的问题，有力地证明了我们应该努力说服全世界加快行动，逐步淘汰化石燃料，应对气候变化。”