Nepal’s catastrophe shows who pays the price for global climate change

The recent flooding and landslides in Nepal have highlighted the disproportionate impact of climate change on the most vulnerable populations. While the exact cause of the disaster is still being investigated, experts agree that rising global temperatures have created conditions that increase the risk of such events. The Himalayan region, often referred to as the "third pole," is warming rapidly and holds the largest store of ice and snow outside the polar caps.

Increased glacier melting can lead to the formation of glacial lakes, which pose a risk of catastrophic floods and landslides when they overflow or their natural dams collapse. In 2021, a similar disaster occurred in India's Uttarakhand state, where a rock and ice avalanche triggered a debris flood wave, resulting in hundreds of deaths.

Though it is too early to definitively link the Nepal disaster to climate change, scientists have warned that the frequency and severity of mountain hazards, such as GLOFs, torrential floods, debris flows, landslides, and avalanches, are being exacerbated by the global temperature rise. Developing countries, particularly those in the Least Developed Countries and Lower-Income Countries, are being hit hardest by these consequences, despite contributing minimal greenhouse gas emissions.