Sep 04, 2026 16:25 pm IST

Opinion | Nepal Needs $5 Billion To Rebuild. World's Climate Fund Doesn't Have Even 10% Of It

The fund caps support at USD 20 million per project; Nepal needs two hundred times that. And the board is not scheduled to sit until December.

Harjeet Singh Harjeet Singh Columnist

Harjeet Singh Columnist

Nepal stands today on the frontlines of a climate emergency it did nothing to create. A wall of freezing water and debris, unleashed when a glacial lake burst high on the Tibet border on August 26, tore through the Bhotekoshi and Rasuwa valleys, killing more than a thousand people and leaving thousands still missing. Its glaciers are melting, its rivers are turning into weapons, and its communities are absorbing irreparable loss. Nepal is responsible for barely 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It did next to nothing to cause this crisis, yet it is bearing the full weight of it.

Kathmandu has formally called on the UN's Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) to expedite support for relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction - the first country ever to pressure the new Fund in a moment of acute catastrophe. This is precisely the crisis that the fund was created to answer. And here is the bitter truth: it is almost an empty bucket.

Process And Punishment

Nepal's Finance Minister, Swarnim Wagle, estimates that rebuilding will cost between USD 4 billion and 5 billion, and warns that this figure is only preliminary. Set that against the fund meant to help. Of roughly USD 820 million pledged by........

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