Nepal's PM tells UN that August floods are a climate warning to the world

Nepal's prime minister used his address to the United Nations General Assembly to confront world leaders over climate inaction, describing the deadly floods that struck his country in August as a global warning rather than a purely national tragedy.

"It was a warning to the world. And I ask you today: Have you really heard that warning?" Prime Minister Balendra Shah said on Thursday night, referring to the disaster that has killed at least 1,400 people, with many more still missing.

Shah, 36, a former rapper and engineer who is the youngest head of government to address the assembly this year, spoke in a black Dhaka topi and his signature dark sunglasses, worn for medical reasons. He recalled that nearly three years ago the UN secretary-general had warned humanity about an impending climate disaster from the shadow of Mount Everest, and said that cry "was not heard enough."

Scientists have linked the melting of permafrost driven by the burning of coal, oil and gas to the instability of a glacier that partly collapsed and set off the massive flood. Nepal accounts for less than one-tenth of one percent of the heat-trapping gases behind climate change, and about 99 percent of its electricity comes from hydropower. Many workers were trapped in tunnels by the floodwaters.

"We did not create this crisis, yet we are paying a colossal price for it," Shah said, adding that Nepal's glaciers are retreating, its mountain slopes are growing unstable and its rivers are becoming less predictable. He said climate change "does not recognize borders" and that "glaciers and floods do not travel with stamps and passports."

Shah did not request a specific sum in aid, but criticised the international financial system as inadequate and overly bureaucratic, including a loss and damage fund set up in recent years to help poor nations hit by climate disasters. "When the house is burning, we do not ask a family to complete 50 forms. We act," he said, calling that the meaning of climate justice.

He urged the assembly to act not only on relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction but also on "responsibility, reparation, resilience" — language that sits uneasily with industrialised Western nations such as the United States, historically the world's largest carbon emitter. Over the past 75 years, the United States has released roughly 1,500 times more carbon than Nepal, according to the Global Carbon Project. The US announced $31 million in flood recovery aid for Nepal this week, bringing its total assistance to $36 million.

Nepal's foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, told a UN climate summit on Wednesday that preliminary assessments put the losses from the recent disaster at more than $5 billion, nearly 15 percent of GDP and a third of the annual budget. He described the catastrophe as a humanitarian emergency, a development emergency and a justice crisis, warning that "what happened in Nepal is not an isolated disaster but a preview of what awaits many vulnerable nations."

Subeksha Khadka, a humanitarian and former Miss Nepal International, praised Shah's speech and echoed his warning. "This time Nepal has been on the target, but it could be anyone," she said. "This is our story right now, and it can be anybody else's tomorrow. So it's time to act."

Former US vice president Al Gore said in an interview that the disaster showed the climate crisis was worsening faster than people can handle, and foreshadowed problems from melting glaciers that feed Asia's great rivers, putting the water supply of 2 billion people at risk.