Nepal’s catastrophe shows who pays the price for global climate change
Nepal's recent disaster highlights the disproportionate impact of climate change on vulnerable communities. While the exact cause of the recent flooding and landslides remains uncertain, experts agree that rising global temperatures have created conditions that make disasters more likely. Jon Tunnicliffe, an environmental professor at the University of Auckland, explained that climate change can exacerbate existing hazards by altering the conditions that trigger them.
The Himalayan region, known as the "third pole" due to its vast ice and snow reserves, is warming at an alarming rate. A 2026 study found that glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalayas experienced a 12% reduction in area and a 9% decline in ice reserves between 1990 and 2020. Glacial lakes, formed by melting glaciers, pose a particular risk, as their overflow or dam collapse can lead to catastrophic floods and landslides.
Researchers warn that the risk of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) has increased in the Himalaya-Karakoram region due to rapidly rising temperatures.
The Chamoli disaster in India in 2021, which claimed around 300 lives, serves as a stark example of how climate change can trigger natural disasters. Although initially attributed to a glacial lake outburst flood, the disaster was later found to be caused by a large rock and ice avalanche. Scientists caution that while climate change is altering glaciers, snow conditions, permafrost, and mountain slopes across the Himalayas, it is too early to determine the specific role of climate change in the Nepal disaster.
However, the international community and academics have long warned of the dangers of GLOFs and other disasters caused by climate change. The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has been mapping the status of over 25,000 glacial lakes in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region and identifying risks. Despite contributing only 0.03% of global greenhouse gas emissions, Nepal bears a disproportionate burden of the consequences of climate change, particularly affecting low-income communities in least-developed countries.
Written by urgent.news from The Hankyoreh's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
