Mountains Need Action, Not Just Dialogue

Nepal’s experience at COP31 shows the gap between global climate commitments and the financial support available to vulnerable countries. At Antalya, Türkiye, world leaders are discussing the shift away from fossil fuels. For countries such as Nepal, however, the question remains: who will finance the transition and who will pay the price? Without predictable and accessible grant-based climate finance, a just energy transition will be difficult to achieve. At a program titled From the Himalayas to the World: A Roadmap for a Just Transition from Fossil Fuels for Vulnerable Economies, held at the Nepal Pavilion during COP31, government officials and international speakers called for climate finance that does not add to the economic burden of developing countries. Nations that have contributed little to global emissions are being forced to spend heavily on a crisis they did little to cause. Nepal accounts for less than 0.1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet faces melting glaciers, flash floods, landslides and growing threats to agriculture, tourism, infrastructure and livelihoods. The August 26 Bhotekoshi disaster damaged 14 hydropower projects. Their reconstruction and rehabilitation are estimated to cost US4.7billion, a heavy expense for a country with limited financial resources. Nepal has pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045 and generate 28,500MW of renewable energy by 2035. Its Nationally Determined Contribution estimates that US73.74 billion will be needed for emissions reduction by 2035, and 85 percent of that is expected to come from international assistance.