New York, September 24
Prime Minister Balendra Shah has called for greater international support for countries facing the consequences of climate change, saying Nepal is paying a “colossal price” for a crisis it did little to create.
Addressing the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Shah placed Nepal’s recent Bhotekoshi-Trishuli floods at the centre of his speech, describing the disaster as a warning to the international community about the growing risks facing the Himalayas.
“Climate change does not recognize borders,” Shah said, pointing to the effects of melting glaciers, unstable mountain slopes, floods and landslides across Nepal, China and India.
He said the disaster had killed at least 1,400 people and left more than 6,000 missing, while preliminary assessments put Nepal’s physical recovery needs at around 10 percent of its GDP.
The floods, he said, had swept away bridges, roads, schools, homes and livelihoods and interrupted Nepal’s progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
“I come before you from Nepal — a distant country in the Himalayas — carrying a close warning for humanity,” Shah said.
He recalled United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ visit to Nepal nearly three years ago, when Guterres warned from the foot of Mount Everest about the dangers posed by the climate crisis.
Shah said the warning had not been translated into action quickly enough.
“We, the political leaders of the world, have been negligent to translate those warnings into action at the speed and scale that vulnerable people require,” he said.
Calls for Himalayan cooperation
Shah said a warming climate was destabilising the Himalayan ecosystem, with melting permafrost contributing to unstable mountain slopes and increasing the risks of ice-rock avalanches, floods and landslides.
He proposed the establishment of a Himalayan Climate Resilience Mechanism, led by Nepal, India and China.
The mechanism, he said, should allow the three countries to share satellite data and technical expertise, monitor dangerous glacial lakes, strengthen early-warning systems and coordinate assistance when disasters occur.
“Let the Himalayas become a laboratory of international cooperation, rather than a frontier of fragmented information,” Shah said.
He said the Hindu Kush Himalaya was home to nearly two billion people and provided water, ecosystems, agriculture and livelihoods to populations far beyond Nepal.
“The Himalayas are not peripheral to the planet. They are part of the planet’s life-support system,” he said.
Nepal seeks climate finance
Shah said Nepal contributes less than 0.1 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions but is facing retreating glaciers, increasingly unstable mountain slopes and unpredictable rivers.
“For Nepal, climate catastrophe is not just a humanitarian event, but a development emergency,” he said.
The prime minister said major disasters destroy infrastructure and livelihoods while forcing poorer countries to borrow money to rebuild damage they did not cause.
He called for greater grant-based international assistance and said existing climate financing mechanisms remained inadequate.
“The Loss and Damage Fund, the Global Environment Facility and other relevant financing mechanisms remain grossly inadequate,” Shah said.
He also criticised the complexity of accessing international climate finance.
“Climate finance must not become a bureaucratic maze through which vulnerable countries spend years proving that they need help,” he said. “When the house is burning, we do not ask the family to complete fifty forms. We act.”
Shah argued that the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities”, recognised under the UN climate framework, should guide the international response.
“Those who have historically contributed more to the problem, and those with greater capacity to respond, must do more,” he said.
‘Flawless logistics for war and broken logistics for food’
Shah also used his speech to criticise what he described as an unequal international system in which military goods move more efficiently across borders than essential supplies for ordinary people.
He referred to shortages of fertiliser, bitumen and cooking fuel in Nepal, contrasting them with the speed at which weapons and military equipment cross international borders.
“Inter-continental missiles arrive on time. Rifles and ammunition cross borders, clear every bottleneck, meet every deadline,” Shah said.
“But a peasant in Nepal cannot procure her fertilizer or fuel at market price at a time of need.”
“We have built a world with flawless logistics for war and broken logistics for food,” he said.
Shah said Nepal was not alone in facing such pressures, pointing to Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
He argued that countries across the region were dealing with the consequences of climate change while also being affected by wars and geopolitical crises they did not start.
“This tells us there is a lot more broken than meets the eye in the present order of global cooperation,” he said.
Six words for climate action
Shah framed Nepal’s immediate demands around six words.
“Relief. Rehabilitation. Reconstruction,” he said. “And also: Responsibility. Reparation. Resilience.”
The first three, he said, were needed after a disaster, while the latter three were necessary to ensure that climate disasters did not become a permanent condition for vulnerable countries.
He said Nepal had already taken steps to strengthen its resilience, including restoring forests, expanding hydropower, promoting electric mobility and strengthening climate adaptation at the local level.
But he said Nepal could not build resilience alone.
“Remarkable for a least developed country, Nepal is already playing a global role exceeding its ecological share,” he said.
Shah links climate justice with global inequality
The prime minister also broadened his argument to the wider international order, saying the UN was founded on the principles of sovereignty, international law and human dignity.
“Today, that international system is under strain,” Shah said.
“Too often, military and economic power determines whose voice is heard.”
He called for a fairer global economic order and said climate justice was not simply about financial assistance.
“It is about distributive justice — who bears the costs,” he said.
“It is about procedural justice — who has a voice.”
He said the international system should also consider whether the interests of mountain communities, small island states, landlocked and least-developed countries, and future generations were being given equal weight.
Focus on Nepal’s new political generation
Shah also presented Nepal’s recent political changes as part of a broader generational shift.
He said young people had demanded politics based on integrity and accountability and described the change as part of a wider reaction against conflict, inequality and a lack of opportunities.
“Our youth have demanded a politics of integrity and accountability,” he said.
Shah said his government’s priorities were to build a state capable of delivering decent jobs, social protection and opportunities for Nepalis to build their futures at home.
He also said the country needed to move away from ad hoc responses to climate disasters and develop a culture of preparedness.
“Let us finance resilience, and invest in insurance and innovation,” he said.
“Let us build stronger infrastructure and institutions. Let us reduce fossil-fuel dependence. Let us build systems that warn, alert and save lives.”
Shah ended his address with a reference to the Himalayas as the “rooftop of the world”.
“And when the next warning comes from the rooftop of the world,” he said, “let us be ready to hear it, and ready to act.”
He concluded by wishing for the welfare of the world and calling for the world to follow the path shown by the Buddha.
