ON 24 SEPTEMBER 2026, Nepal’s prime minister, Balendra Shah, stood before the United Nations General Assembly in New York and spoke of the “death and destruction of epic proportion” caused by the August flash flood on the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli Rivers in northern Nepal. The flood killed at least 1400 people, with over 6000 still missing. Shah noted that Nepal produces less than 0.1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet the disaster – with global warming a factor contributing to it – has forced “a poor country to borrow money to repair damage it did not cause.”
Shah also had sharp words for the United Nations Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, created in 2022 to respond to the impacts of climate change. He called this fund, and other climate crisis-related finance mechanisms, “grossly inadequate”, and called for a system of grant-based support for affected countries and communities rather than mega loans or a patchwork of small grants. “When the house is burning, we do not ask the family to complete 50 forms,” he said. “We act. This is what climate justice must mean.”
Shah put Nepal’s needs for physical recovery from the disaster at about 10 percent of the country’s annual GDP. Nepal’s ministry of foreign affairs has placed total reconstruction needs at roughly USD 4.78 billion, including USD 57.67 million for immediate recovery in the first six months. These figures come from a Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA) conducted by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority and the National Planning Commission, which drew on satellite imagery, drone surveys and data from sector ministries rather than a full on-ground survey. Arjun Bhandari, who led the work on the report, told The Kathmandu Post that the final Post Disaster Needs Assessment now being prepared “could find a variation of around 20 to 30 percent to this figure.”