KATHMANDU, Sept 3: Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) lawmaker Manish Jha has drawn the international community’s attention to the losses Nepal has suffered due to climate change, saying Nepal should seek compensation rather than relief.
Addressing Thursday’s meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR) in English, Jha questioned why Nepal should bear such a disproportionate impact of climate change despite making a negligible contribution to global emissions.
“Nepal has more than 46 percent forest cover. Nepal’s carbon emissions are less than one percent. In such a situation, why should Nepal bear the greatest impact of climate change?” he asked the international community.
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Jha argued that the damage Nepal is experiencing due to climate change should not be viewed merely as a series of natural disasters. He said countries with large economies and high carbon emissions have contributed significantly to climate change, while low-emitting countries such as Nepal have been forced to pay a heavy price.
Referring specifically to the carbon emissions of India, China and the United States, Jha said Nepal should strongly raise at international forums the issue of receiving compensation from countries responsible for higher emissions. “We should not ask the international community for relief; we should ask for compensation,” he said.
Jha said all political parties were united on the need to raise the issue of compensation for the losses Nepal has suffered due to climate change, and urged the government to advance it as a national agenda.
He urged the prime minister to clearly and firmly present Nepal’s concerns at international forums and climate change conferences. He stressed that Nepal’s low carbon emissions and extensive forest cover should form the basis for presenting the issues of climate justice and compensation to the international community.
Jha noted that while Nepal has continued to contribute to efforts to mitigate climate change, the country is facing increasing risks from rising temperatures in the Himalayan region, glacial lake outbursts, floods, landslides, extreme rainfall and other climate-related disasters.
He said the international community must fulfill its responsibility toward countries like Nepal that have contributed little to global emissions but are bearing a disproportionate share of the consequences.
Jha’s address highlighted the need to draw international attention to the disparity between Nepal’s negligible contribution to climate change and the disproportionate losses it is suffering as a result.
