With the death toll over 1,000 and thousands missing, Nepal has now sought climate compensation for the deadly floods which struck the Himalayan nation last week.
“We are paying the ultimate price for a global crisis we did not create. Meanwhile, India has emphasised climate equity and highlighted its relatively low per-capita emissions, by stating that climate obligations should take into account differences in countries’ historical emissions, development needs and capacities. New Delhi maintains that Western nations, which industrialised first, occupy the majority of the global carbon budget. India has also called on developed countries to provide the necessary financial resources to help developing nations deal with climate impacts.
Manjeet Dhakal, a Nepali climate policy expert and United Nations climate negotiator, added that Nepal emitted less than 0.1% of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, even as it grapples with some of its most severe effects.
The rapid melting of glaciers and these catastrophic mountain tsunamis are direct consequences of global climate change,” he said in an interview with Kantipur TV, according to news agency PTI. “We should blame those who are responsible for increasing the global temperature, those who have benefited from the fossil fuel economy for such a long time,” he said. “We can at least use this devastating example as an inspiration to urgently reduce carbon emissions,” the climate negotiator told news agency AP.
