Nepal seeks climate compensation after floods kill more than 1,300

Nepal is seeking $20 million in climate compensation after catastrophic floods killed more than 1,300 people and left over 5,500 missing.

The late-August disaster was triggered when a melting glacier partially collapsed, causing a landslide and flash flooding through Chinese-controlled Tibet and Nepal.

Nepalese Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal told The Guardian that major polluting countries should accept shared responsibility for the destruction.

“We have contributed so little to climate change,” Khanal said.

“It is imperative for those in the global community who benefit from larger, much more polluting economies, and whose historical contribution to greenhouse gases is much bigger than ours, to accept a shared responsibility. This affects all of humanity.”

Nepal produces less than 0.1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, while Himalayan temperatures are rising significantly faster than the global average.

Khanal said Nepal had formally requested $20 million from the UN fund for responding to climate-related loss and damage.

“This felt like a tsunami that was coming from the Himalayas,” he told The Guardian.