The Nepal government defined the recent massive flooding as a disaster caused by climate change and sought compensation from the world's major greenhouse gas–emitting countries.
According to AFP on the 1st (local time), Nepal Prime Minister Balendra Shah said on social media the previous night, "It is now time for us to raise the issue of the disasters we are experiencing as a result of climate change strongly before the international community."
In this regard, Nepal Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Shisir Khanal said in an interview with a local outlet, "Nepal's greenhouse gas emissions are practically negligible, yet we are paying the ultimate price for a global crisis we did not cause." He added that the Nepal government sent an official letter to the international community seeking climate change compensation.
Minister Khanal called the recent massive flooding a "Himalayan tsunami," saying, "The rapid melting of glaciers and destructive mountain tsunamis are the direct result of global climate change." He added, "Major greenhouse gas emitters such as China, the largest emitter, the United States, the second, and India, the third, have a historic responsibility to compensate vulnerable countries like Nepal." He said, "This is not a matter of charity but a matter of legal and moral responsibility," and warned, "We will raise this issue with absolute resolve and clarity."
Minister Khanal said, "If the Himalayan glaciers disappear, the water security of more than 2 billion people in South Asia who rely on rivers such as the Ganges and the Trishuli will be permanently threatened," adding, "We are raising this issue not only for Nepal but for the survival of South Asian civilization as a whole."
In this regard, Arvindra Khadka, a glaciologist at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal, warned in the New York Times (NYT) that Himalayan glaciers are melting by about 1 meter each year, saying, "It's not only Everest that is a problem; the entire Himalayas are melting."