Developing nations are advocating for prioritizing financial support for climate adaptation and disaster relief at the COP31 summit in Turkey, especially after the recent catastrophic floods in Nepal — an event that has highlighted the shortcomings of existing programs, according to experts.
A coalition of African nations successfully pushed for financial commitments to be included in the agenda of the UN climate negotiations taking place in Antalya, which will continue until November 20.
They express a desire for justice during the discussions, as smaller and more vulnerable countries bear the brunt of climate change impacts despite their minimal emissions — urgent action is needed as the UN now predicts that the world will exceed the 1.5°C global warming target outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Various finance-related initiatives are being proposed, including a “debt pause clause” aimed at assisting nations recovering from climate-related disasters, and increased funding to help compensate nations affected by damage to their infrastructure, culture, and economy.
Developing countries, which require loans and grants for climate-related initiatives, are also calling for a more transparent and expedient process for utilizing the billions already pledged by wealthier donor nations like Canada.
Nepal receives first payout from UN damage fund
Sagar Dhakal, a member of Nepal’s delegation at the summit, stated that the “whole world” has recently witnessed the implications of climate change for his nation in the Himalayas.
“In just 10 minutes, we lost over 7,000 lives,” Dhakal remarked, referencing the catastrophic flash floods triggered by a collapsing glacier that surged down the Trishuli River north of Kathmandu in August.
The floods have led to more than 1,450 confirmed deaths, with nearly 5,300 individuals still unaccounted for, while towns were obliterated, resulting in damages amounting to billions.
In response, last month, the UN’s Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage — established three years ago to compensate developing nations for climate-related losses — allocated its first payout of $21.6 million US specifically for Nepal.
However, this amount illustrates the underfunding of the program, according to Sasha Jattansingh, a loss and damage expert with Climate Analytics, a Caribbean research organization.
A collapsed glacier in Nepal caused catastrophic flooding that killed more than a thousand people, while thousands more are still missing. Andrew Chang breaks down what accelerated the flood to such a violent degree and how factors like the scale of the Himalayan mountains and the region’s climate make prediction and monitoring so challenging.
(Photo credits: The Canadian Press, Reuters, Adobe Stock and Getty Images)
“This initial step indicates that the fund can act swiftly and responsively. However, $21.6 million represents less than one percent of the actual losses and damages estimated for Nepal,” Jattansingh explained.
Nepal is among 119 nations that have sought financial assistance from the fund, requesting a total of around $2.8 billion US. So far, donor countries have pledged approximately $822 million US to the fund, yet only about half of that has been contributed.
The search for survivors is underway after deadly flooding in Nepal and Tibet. But experts around the world are also unpacking what role climate change played in the disaster. We hear from two experts who know the region well, who say people have been warning that something like this was coming as glaciers warm at an alarming rate. And we find out why a better understanding of the impacts of warming on this region could protect lives.
Harjeet Singh, a climate finance advocate from India, is leading a campaign named Fill the Fund, urging donor nations, including Canada, to commit and contribute more.
“It’s as if we have a fire station, yet no water to extinguish the flames,” said Singh, who also contends that the UN’s loss and damage fund must act more rapidly.
He informed CBC’s What On Earth that it took roughly seven weeks for the fund to convene a board meeting and decide to allocate funds for Nepal. Moreover, the disbursement of these funds involves a further process requiring applications for specific projects.
Climate finance campaigner Harjeet Singh at a rally during a UN climate summit in Dubai in December 2023. (Amr Alfiky/Reuters)
Demand for expedited funding approval
There is also a momentum to accelerate other types of climate finance at COP31.
Delegates from vulnerable nations, including low-income and small island states, are advocating for a simplified approach to obtaining funding for adaptation and mitigation projects, which they argue can be overly complicated and technical — a significant hurdle for nations with limited governmental resources.
Singh noted that Nepal applied to the UN’s Green Climate Fund (GCF) — which supports climate-related initiatives in developing countries and is supported by approximately $87 billion US — for a flood protection project nearly eight years ago, but it took seven years for the project to receive approval.
Such delays are clearly too long for nations like Nepal to prepare for disasters akin to the recent flooding, he argues.
“They could not even initiate the project before they faced this disaster,” Singh remarked.
Discussions at COP31 will focus on pressuring the GCF, donor nations, and other funding sources to streamline the access of developing countries to financial resources.
An aerial view taken on August 26 illustrates some of the destruction wrought by the flash floods in Nepal. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)
Nepal’s situation is also underscoring the increasing need for debt relief, experts emphasize.
Developing nations often resort to borrowing to adapt to climate change and to recover after disasters.
This was the case for Nepal after a devastating earthquake in 2015 left thousands dead and many more homeless across the nation.
Between 2015 and 2023, Nepal’s debt to other nations and multilateral lenders increased from approximately $4 billion US to over $10 billion US, partly to finance post-earthquake recovery and development.
In 2027, Nepal will need to pay around $400 million US to service its loans to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank — funds that should be allocated for reconstruction instead, experts argue.
Nepal exemplifies a developing nation increasingly burdened by debt due to the growing incidence of climate-related disasters, according to Ritu Bharadwaj, a climate finance specialist at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London.
“Nepal is in a state of continuous rebuilding,” she stated.
While temporary debt pauses for vulnerable nations are crucial, Bharadwaj asserts that it is equally important to “evaluate how much debt has been accrued due to climatic disasters and, instead of servicing that debt, permit them to use those funds for reconstruction.”