Nepal is staring down the barrel of a $5bn rebuild after catastrophic floods wiped out entire villages, and it wants the world's biggest polluters to open their wallets. The country has formally requested $20m from the UN's loss and damage fund, with a senior minister telling the Guardian that major emitters need to 'wake up' and accept shared responsibility for a disaster that left more than 6,000 people dead or missing.

Scientists suspect climate change played a role in the late August floods, triggered when a melting glacier partially collapsed, sending a deadly landslide and flash flooding through Chinese-controlled Tibet and Nepal. So far, over 1,300 are confirmed dead, with more than 5,500 still missing after 12 days of rescue operations. Nepal's foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, was blunt: 'This felt like a tsunami that was coming from the Himalayas. We experienced waves as high as 60, 70 feet, mixed with debris, mud, stones, rocks, coming at the speed of almost 180km per hour. Towns, villages and highways were completely wiped out.'

Nepal's greenhouse gas emissions are a paltry <0.1% of the global total, while its neighbours India and China are among the worst offenders. The Himalayas - spanning India, China, Nepal, and Bhutan - are warming nearly 50% faster than the global average, and the UN noted in 2023 that Nepal's mountains had lost nearly a third of their ice in just over three decades. Khanal called the disaster 'one of the strongest warning signals we've experienced of what's to come,' insisting it should not be seen as a one-off but as a recurring nightmare for communities worldwide.

The $20m request, sent jointly by Nepal's finance and environment ministries to the UN's loss and damage fund (established in 2022 under the Paris climate agreement), is a drop in the bucket compared to estimated damages upwards of $5bn. Over 20,000 homes and the main highway will likely need rebuilding, and some riverside villages may have to relocate to higher ground. Khanal admitted the compensation is 'obviously not nearly enough,' but stressed it's also a 'wake-up call for the global community to establish a more robust mechanism to help vulnerable and small economies like Nepal.'

Initially singling out India and China for help - while conspicuously avoiding mention of the US, the world's biggest polluter - Khanal later walked it back, saying, 'It's not about shifting the blame to one or the other country, it's about us all working together.' That's a noble sentiment, especially since the UN's loss and damage fund is already facing a 'significant financing gap': it's received requests totalling $2.8bn from 119 countries, but only about $400m has been pledged, with the US contributing just $17m after Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris agreement.

Khanal acknowledged the 'political challenges' in securing compensation, but dismissed climate deniers with a classic: 'Yes, there always will be people who may not agree to our perspective or deny there is climate change, but there are also people who deny that the Earth is round.' He also rebuffed allegations that China failed to warn Nepal about the impending floods, noting that neither side knew the glacier collapse was imminent - though hindsight now shows the glacier had been receding for six months. 'I do not believe any of us had any idea of the threat until it happened,' he said, underscoring the need for better data sharing and coordination in the Himalayan region.