Nepal Prime Minister Balendra “Balen” Shah has called for a decisive shift from rhetoric to action on climate change, arguing that countries least responsible for global warming should not be forced to borrow repeatedly to rebuild what climate disasters destroy.

Addressing the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Shah placed climate justice at the heart of his speech, pointing to the devastating Bhotekoshi floods last month as evidence of the growing costs borne by vulnerable countries.

He called for greater responsibility from major historical emitters and more grant-based climate financing, warning against a system that leaves climate-vulnerable nations accumulating debt simply to recover from disasters they did little to cause.

Shah also urged stronger regional cooperation across the Himalayas, arguing that climate threats cutting across borders require coordinated action rather than fragmented national responses.

“Climate justice cannot remain a beautiful phrase in United Nations documents,” Shah said.

“People of our country must be allowed to build their future instead of constantly rebuilding their past.”

The speech came four weeks after catastrophic floods tore through Nepal’s mountain communities. More than 1,400 people were killed and thousands remain missing, while the government estimates reconstruction will cost billions of dollars.

Shah described the disaster as a warning that went far beyond Nepal.

“The Bhotekoshi disaster was not just a local tragedy; it was a warning to the world,” he said. “And I ask you today: Have you really heard that warning?”

He said a warming climate was destabilising Himalayan ecology by melting permafrost, weakening mountain slopes and increasing the risks of ice-rock avalanches, floods, landslides and other cascading hazards.

The flood travelled downstream towards India, he noted.

“Climate change does not recognise borders. Glaciers and floods do not travel with stamps and passports.”

‘We did not create this crisis’

Shah said Nepal contributes less than 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions but is bearing a disproportionate economic and human cost from climate change.

“We did not create this crisis, yet we are paying a colossal price for it,” he said.

“Our glaciers are retreating, our mountain slopes are becoming unstable, our rivers are becoming less predictable, and every major disaster threatens to erase years of development.”

For Nepal, Shah said, climate catastrophe was no longer simply a humanitarian problem but a development emergency.

“It destroys roads, bridges, schools, homes, farms and livelihoods. It destroys clean-energy infrastructure that we need to fuel our future, and it forces a poor country to borrow money to repair damage it did not cause.”

Shah stopped short of blaming individual countries, instead invoking the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities” embedded in the United Nations climate framework.

“Those who have historically contributed more to the problem and those with greater capacity to respond must do more,” he said.

The Nepal premier also criticised the existing architecture of international climate finance, saying vulnerable countries should not have to take on more debt after climate-driven disasters.

“When a climate-driven disaster destroys infrastructure of a poor country, the answer cannot simply be another mega loan or a patchwork of small grants,” Shah said.

“We need adequate, grant-based support from the world.”

He said the Loss and Damage Fund, Global Environment Facility and other financing mechanisms remained “grossly inadequate” and criticised the bureaucracy surrounding access to climate finance.

“When the house is burning, we do not ask the family to complete 50 forms. We act,” he said. “This is what climate justice must mean.”

Nepal proposes Himalayan climate mechanism

Shah also used the speech to propose a concrete regional response: a “Himalaya Climate Resilience Mechanism” led by Nepal, India and China.

The proposed mechanism would bring the three countries together to share satellite data and scientific expertise, monitor dangerous glacial lakes, strengthen joint early-warning systems and coordinate cross-border assistance when disasters strike.

“Let the Himalayas become a laboratory of international cooperation rather than a frontier of fragmented information,” Shah said.

The proposal broadly reflects recommendations made in Nepal ahead of Shah’s UN appearance for a regional system involving Nepal, India and China to exchange climate-risk information and improve early-warning capacity.

Shah said the Hindu Kush Himalaya sustains nearly 2 billion people through water, ecosystems, agriculture and livelihoods, making its climate vulnerability a global rather than exclusively Nepali concern.

“The Himalayas are not peripheral to the planet; they are part of the planet’s life-support system,” he said.

He said Nepal itself was expanding hydropower, electric mobility, forest restoration and local climate adaptation but could not build resilience alone.

Shah distilled his demand into six words: “relief, rehabilitation, reconstruction” and “responsibility, reparation, resilience.”

“The first three are what we need after disaster,” he said. “The second three are what we need to ensure that disaster does not become a permanent condition.”

Shah closed the climate section of his address with a call to move away from ad hoc disaster responses towards preparedness.

“Let us finance resilience and invest in insurance and innovation. Let us build stronger infrastructure and institutions. Let us reduce fossil fuel dependence. Let us build systems that warn, alert and save lives.”

“And when the next warning comes from the rooftop of the world,” he added, “let us be ready to hear it and ready to act.”

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