KATHMANDU, Sept 18: International climate activist Harjeet Singh has said developed countries should provide compensation to Nepal, following a new study by World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international research group that conducts scientific analyses of the impacts of climate change, which found a clear influence of climate change on the Bhotekoshi–Trishuli disaster.
Singh said the rise in global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels—coal, oil and gas—is weakening the Himalayan region and has ultimately contributed to conditions that can trigger the collapse of large sections of mountain terrain.
“The new analysis removes any doubt about the influence of climate change on the disaster in Nepal and confirms that this was a compound disaster that had been building for decades,” Singh told Republica.
“The science is now clear—the warming caused by burning fossil fuels helped create the conditions that led to the collapse of that mountain section," he added.
UN negotiators strike historic deal to help countries worst hit...
Singh, the global coordinator of the Fill the Fund campaign, which is calling for adequate funding for the international Loss and Damage Fund, and founding executive director of the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation, described Nepal’s situation as an example of “climate injustice.”
He said that although Nepal has made a negligible contribution to global warming, its people are being forced to pay the price with their lives, homes and futures.
“Nepal has contributed almost nothing to the warming that is destabilizing its own mountains, yet the Nepali people are paying the price by losing their lives, homes and futures,” he said.
A study released Thursday by WWA, involving 24 scientists from around the world, highlighted the impacts of climate change on the high-mountain environment and its role in creating conditions conducive to disasters.
Singh said the latest scientific analysis concluded that the scale of the disaster had reached a level that could not have been completely prevented through climate adaptation measures alone.
He said developed countries that have historically contributed a much larger share of greenhouse gas emissions have a particular responsibility toward highly vulnerable countries such as Nepal. He called for the Loss and Damage Fund, established to address the impacts and losses caused by climate change, to provide immediate support to Nepal.
“Responsibility must now be guided by scientific evidence,” Singh said. “Developed countries that have played a major role in driving warming through their historical emissions have a clear and unavoidable role in this matter.”
According to Singh, such support to Nepal should not be viewed merely as traditional development assistance or charity. Rather, he said, it should be linked to compensation and recovery for countries that suffer disproportionately from climate change despite contributing little to the problem.
“The Loss and Damage Fund was established precisely for moments like this, and it should support Nepal without delay,” he said. “This is not aid, charity or benevolence; it is compensation and recovery.”
Singh said every fraction of a degree of additional warming pushes vulnerable communities around the world into greater danger. Therefore, he said, reducing dependence on fossil fuels and bearing the cost of damage that has already occurred are two sides of the same responsibility.
“Every fraction of warming that we fail to prevent puts the world’s most vulnerable people at greater risk,” Singh said. “Ending the use of fossil fuels and paying for the damage that has already occurred are now two sides of the same obligation.”
The WWA scientific study released Thursday analyzed the large-scale ice-and-rock collapse and glacier-related failure in Rasuwa, followed by the devastating floods in the Bhotekoshi–Trishuli river system, in connection with a high-mountain environment weakened by climate change.
