After a devastating Himalayan disaster, Nepal is asking whether countries that contributed least to climate change should continue paying the highest price for its consequences.

When a glacier collapse unleashed a devastating flash flood along the Nepal-China border on August 26, the immediate concern was survival: finding the missing, recovering bodies and reconnecting communities cut off by destroyed roads and bridges.

But as the scale of the disaster became clearer, another question emerged from Kathmandu: who should pay for the destruction?

Nepal has framed the catastrophe as more than a humanitarian emergency. It has placed it within the increasingly contentious debate over climate justice, arguing that countries that have contributed relatively little to global warming should not be left alone to bear the cost of a crisis they did little to create.

The disaster has killed and left thousands missing across Nepal and China’s Tibet region, while destroying homes and critical infrastructure. Nepal has estimated that the damage could run into billions of dollars.

For Nepal, however, the question is not simply about rebuilding what was lost. It is about whether the international climate system can deliver meaningful support when climate-vulnerable countries reach the limits of what they can adapt to.

“We are shifting our diplomatic framework from ‘aid’ to ‘justice and compensation’,” Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal said in remarks reported earlier this month, describing the issue as one of “legal and moral liability”.

That argument goes to the heart of climate justice.

A disaster Nepal did little to cause

Nepal contributes less than 0.1 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet its mountainous geography places it among the countries highly exposed to climate-related risks.

The Himalayas are warming rapidly, while retreating glaciers, unstable slopes and glacial lakes are creating new hazards for communities downstream.

The recent disaster has therefore become a stark illustration of the imbalance at the centre of the climate debate: those with the smallest historical contribution to global warming can face some of its most destructive consequences.

Mangjit Dakal, a lead adviser to the chair of the United Nations Least Developed Countries Group on climate change, described this imbalance as the essence of climate injustice.

“The countries whose emissions are extremely low, countries who did not benefit or who did not depend on the dirty fuel in terms of their development, are the ones who are suffering most,” he said.

For Nepal, the consequences also extend beyond its borders. Himalayan rivers connect countries across the region, making changes in the mountains a shared concern for Nepal, India, China and communities much farther downstream.

“We are a downstream community for China and an upstream community for India,” Dakal said, stressing that Himalayan rivers affect the region “in one or the other way.”

The argument is therefore both environmental and geopolitical.

From climate debt to climate finance

Climate justice introduces another contested idea: climate debt.

George Monbiot, an environmental campaigner and author, argued during the discussion that countries responsible for the largest share of historical emissions have accumulated a debt to poorer nations facing the consequences.

“I strongly believe that they do. I think climate debt is a good framing of this issue,” he said.

For Monbiot, the climate debate cannot be separated from the historical economic relationship between wealthy and poorer countries. He argued that poorer countries are already carrying substantial external debt while simultaneously dealing with the consequences of climate change.

The question, then, is whether historical responsibility should translate into financial responsibility.

That is where the international Loss and Damage Fund becomes important.

Created to help vulnerable developing countries respond to climate-related losses that cannot be avoided through mitigation or adaptation, the fund was designed to address precisely the kind of gap Nepal says it is now confronting.

Dakal argued that Nepal represents a test of whether the mechanism can work when a disaster strikes.

“When the adaptation limits are breached, and that’s exactly the case that we are seeing now in Nepal when the whole mountain towns are washed away, the infrastructure, the loss of life,” he said.

But the fund faces a fundamental problem: the scale of available finance remains far below the needs of vulnerable countries.

Recent reporting shows Nepal has formally sought support through the UN-backed loss and damage mechanism, while the fund itself faces pressure to respond more quickly to disasters rather than operate only through slower, longer-term financing processes.

For countries facing catastrophic losses, speed matters.

Dakal argued that assistance should come as grants rather than adding further debt.

“It should be in a form of grant not loan,” he said, adding that rapid response would be an important test of the fund’s relevance.

Who will pay?

The hardest question is not whether Nepal needs money. It is whether major economies are willing to provide it—and on what basis.

Erin Sikorsky, director of the Center for Climate and Security and a former US National Intelligence Council official, offered a different way of approaching the issue.

Climate justice may be morally compelling, she argued, but governments often respond more readily when an issue is presented in terms of national interest.

“I think it’s the right way to frame it to help drive conversations internationally,” Sikorsky said of Nepal’s case. “But I also think at the end of the day what you want is action.”

For the United States, she argued, supporting climate resilience can also make strategic sense by reducing instability, humanitarian emergencies and future costs.

“If you can invest in adaptation and resilience ahead of time, you can save that money,” she said.

That argument could prove significant as governments reassess their spending priorities.

Climate finance is already competing with growing demands for defence, development and economic security. Sikorsky therefore cautioned against treating one fund as the entire solution.

“I think it’s one tool in the tool belt,” she said.

She pointed to debt cancellation, adaptation finance and resilience investment as additional ways to help vulnerable countries prepare for future shocks.

From sympathy to action

For Nepal, the central frustration is not a lack of international sympathy.

It is what happens after the sympathy.

Every major disaster generates statements of solidarity, emergency assistance and promises to rebuild. But vulnerable countries argue that such responses remain inadequate compared with the scale and frequency of climate-related losses.

Dakal put the challenge bluntly.

“Every time when there are events like this, the one that we faced in Nepal or in 2022 in Pakistan, when it is there in the news headline it gets a lot of attention. We receive a lot of sympathy but it’s also important those sympathies are converted to action.”

That may ultimately be Nepal’s significance in the global climate debate.

The country is not simply asking for help after one disaster. It is challenging the world to decide what climate responsibility means when adaptation reaches its limits and losses become unavoidable.

Nepal’s government has since clarified that it is not seeking compensation from any particular country, but from the international community through the UN climate framework.

That distinction matters.

It shifts the question from who is guilty? to what does the international community owe countries on the frontline of climate change?

The answer will determine whether climate justice remains a powerful phrase repeated at international conferences, or becomes a functioning system capable of moving resources to those who need them most.

For Nepal, the test has already arrived.

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