Nepal PM Calls Floods a Global Warning, Proposes Himalayan Climate Body

Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah used his first address to the United Nations General Assembly to describe last month's catastrophic flash floods as a warning to the world, and to propose a new three-nation mechanism for managing climate risks in the Himalayas.

Shah said the disaster along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers, which experts have linked to a glacial collapse near the Nepal-China border, was not only a local tragedy. He asked the assembly whether the warning it carried had truly been heard, noting that a similar alert about impending climate disaster had been issued from the region nearly three years earlier.

He said Nepal's communities and scientists had registered those warnings, but that political leaders had been slow to turn them into action at the speed and scale needed by people exposed to climate hazards.

At least 1,450 people died in the floods and 6,150 remain missing, according to Shah. A rapid assessment puts the physical cost of recovery at roughly 10 percent of Nepal's GDP, he said, adding that the country faces a massive reconstruction task.

The prime minister thanked India and China for prompt assistance, along with other friendly countries, the United Nations system, humanitarian agencies, philanthropies and individuals who offered support. He said Nepal would count on international solidarity for recovery, as it did after the 2015 Gorkha earthquake.

Shah proposed establishing a Himalayan Climate Resilience Mechanism led by Nepal, India and China. Under the plan, the countries would share satellite data and expertise, monitor hazardous glacial lakes, strengthen joint early warning systems and coordinate cross-border assistance when disasters strike.

He said the Hindu Kush Himalaya region is home to nearly two billion people and supplies water, ecosystem services, agriculture and livelihoods well beyond Nepal's borders, describing the mountains as part of the planet's life support system.

While Nepal is strengthening local climate adaptation, Shah said the country cannot build resilience alone against a crisis he attributed to failures of global governance. He urged the assembly to keep six words in view: relief, rehabilitation, reconstruction, responsibility, reparation and resilience.

Shah also noted that he is the youngest head of government to address the assembly this year, but said that was not the point of his speech. He argued that a country willing to pay should be able to buy what it needs, and that a world capable of delivering weapons anywhere within 72 hours has no excuse for leaving a farmer without the means of a decent livelihood.