Nepal’s US$5 billion flood damage tab puts UN climate change fund to the test

Nepal’s US$5 billion flood damage tab puts UN climate change fund to the test The fund has received pledges of more than US$822 million but the total of paid contributions so far stands at around US$485 million The tab is expected to come to at least US$5 billion, an enormous sum for one of Asia’s poorest countries, and the fund it is hoping to tap is new, underfunded and untested. On Tuesday, the country sent a letter to the fund’s co-chairs asking for immediate support and arguing that the international community’s promises “must move from commitments on paper to concrete action on the ground”, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal told reporters last week. The letter did not quantify the losses or specify how much money the nation was requesting. The precise role climate change played in the August 26 disaster is not yet fully established. But the Himalayas are highly vulnerable to warming, as permafrost and glaciers thaw, rendering rock, soil and ice unstable. Climate-linked disasters such as glacial-lake floods have become more frequent in recent decades.