We have made some progress. Nepal ranks second in the world for electric vehicle sales. We have maintained our forest cover, and conservation efforts have paid off, with rhino and tiger populations growing. Hydropower is a major source of clean energy, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.

But we’re still far from where we need to be. Two main obstacles stand in the way. The first is Nepal’s heavy reliance on external financing to implement its third set of Nationally Determined Contributions, its latest climate action plan under the Paris Agreement. The plan is ambitious, which is positive, and was developed through wide consultation. But we cannot deliver it without international financing, particularly from countries with high historical emissions.

The second is frequent changes of government. Each new leadership brings new priorities, making it harder to keep climate policy consistent. However, following the March election, the ruling party holds almost two-thirds of the seats in the House of Representatives. This government should be able to serve a full five-year term, which will help it focus on its priorities.

We can’t prevent disasters like this, but we can adapt. We must build climate-resilient infrastructure and factor climate risks into reconstruction and future development, including how we want our cities and villages to grow.

We also need a regional approach. That means stronger early warning systems and cross-border information sharing, particularly with China. Nepal should use this moment to push governments across the Hindu Kush Himalaya to adopt a binding convention to protect the mountain ecosystem. Countries in the Alps and Carpathians have similar arrangements we could learn from. Climate impacts do not stop at borders, and they will increasingly affect the whole region.

It will divert development funds towards reconstruction. This will stretch the resources available for development elsewhere, as well as for affected communities’ long-term needs.

It will also affect social development, because the disaster hit an area with a large Indigenous population. For these communities, recovery goes beyond rebuilding homes and infrastructure. It also means protecting their sense of ownership and connection to the land.

More broadly, it’s another setback for a country that was already hit by the 2015 earthquake and then the COVID pandemic. These repeated crises have made long-term development harder to sustain. They have also kept delaying our ‘graduation’ from least developed country (LDC) status, which would phase out our LDC-specific trade preferences and some concessional support. The date has been put off several times, most recently to November 2026. In May, the government asked the United Nations (UN) for a further deferral to 2029. It cited geopolitical tensions, weak economic recovery, implementation delays and risks to jobs and exports.

We recently sent a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office setting out what Nepal should raise at the UN General Assembly, particularly the action and assistance needed to respond to the climate crisis. We have also launched a petition on the Speak Up Nepal website, under the People’s Movement for Climate Justice, calling for greater international assistance and rejecting climate loans.

What we demand from the international community is compensation. The World Bank has offered Nepal climate loans, but that’s not what we want. Our country has contributed very little to global emissions, yet we are already suffering the consequences. Being expected to take on debt to address a crisis for which we bear little responsibility is an injustice. The International Court of Justice, in its advisory opinion on climate change, recognised that breaching climate obligations can entail full reparation, including compensation, as well as guarantees of non-repetition.

Governments must also contribute enough to the Loss and Damage Fund, which provides financial support to developing countries facing climate-related loss and damage. The Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change meets every year, but decisions take far too long for an issue this urgent, as recent events in Nepal have shown.

We also want foreign governments to implement their commitments. Our two neighbours, China and India, are major emitters. They must cut their emissions and protect the environment, because development should not come at the cost of environmental destruction.

Sympathy is not enough. We need real international support and government action. Small island states in the Caribbean and the Pacific have been raising these issues together, and we want them to support Nepal and other mountainous countries in this fight.