In response to the devastating floods that recently struck Nepal, resulting in over 1,400 fatalities, Prime Minister Balen Shah has proposed the creation of a Himalayan climate resilience system. This initiative aims to be a collaborative effort involving India, China, and Nepal. The proposal comes weeks after the floods highlighted the urgent need for enhanced climate preparedness in the region.
“The Hindu Kush Himalaya is home to nearly two billion people. These mountains provide water, ecosystems, agriculture and livelihoods to populations far beyond Nepal. The Himalayas are not peripheral to the planet. The Nepal PM also listed his proposal for what the new climate resilience system would be doing – share satellite data and expertise, monitor dangerous glacial lakes and strengthen joint early-warning systems. “And when disaster strikes, let us coordinate assistance across borders. “And this is not Nepal’s private misfortune. Ask Bangladesh. Ask Bhutan. Ask India. Ask the Maldives. Ask Pakistan. Ask Sri Lanka. Ask any other country in our region and you will hear the same account: hit by the climate we did not warm, and hit again by the wars we did not start.
Rapid assessments peg physical recovery needs at about 10 percent of GDP, he said.
They are part of the planet’s life-support system,” Shah said. “That is why, as an urgent first step, we propose that we establish a Himalayan Climate Resilience Mechanism, led by Nepal, India and China,” Shah said. Let the Himalayas become a laboratory of international cooperation, rather than a frontier of fragmented information,” he said. This tells us there is a lot more broken than meets the eye in the present order of global cooperation,” he said. Balen Shah told the UN that Nepal now faces a massive task of recovery and reconstruction.
