Nepal has asked a United Nations-backed climate fund for urgent financial support after devastating floods in the Trishuli river basin, arguing that it is bearing disproportionate losses despite contributing little to global greenhouse gas emissions.

Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle and Agriculture, Forests and Environment Minister Gita Chaudhary made the appeal in a letter dated August 31 to the board of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, asking it to treat the disaster as a special case.

The August 26 flash floods in the Bhotekoshi river basin killed and displaced people and caused extensive damage to homes, roads and other critical infrastructure, disrupting essential services, livelihoods and transport links, the government said.

Nepal has not specified an amount in its request, saying the full extent of the economic and non-economic losses is still being assessed.

Search and rescue, relief and damage assessments are continuing, while preliminary findings suggest that the scale of the disaster has exceeded the country’s immediate capacity to respond, the government said.

The appeal comes amid a wider debate over the extent to which the disaster can be attributed to climate change.

Maheshwar Dhakal, chief of the Climate Change Management Division under the agriculture ministry, described the floods and landslides as a climate-related disaster.

He said developed and industrialised countries had emitted large amounts of carbon while Nepal’s contribution was negligible, adding that the country had suffered because of the actions of others rather than its own.

According to World Bank data, annual per-capita carbon dioxide emissions in Nepal stand at 0.54 tonnes, compared with 9.3 tonnes in China, 2.17 tonnes in India and 13.6 tonnes in the United States. The global average was 4.67 tonnes in 2024.

The Loss and Damage Fund was established to help particularly vulnerable developing countries deal with losses and damage associated with climate change.

Nepal’s letter said the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli disaster demonstrated how extreme events in the high-mountain cryosphere can rapidly cascade downstream, affecting densely populated communities and systems including water, food, energy, health, infrastructure and ecosystems.

The government said it would provide preliminary assessments, official data, satellite information and sector-specific estimates to support the fund’s consideration of its request.

It also asked the fund to immediately designate a secretariat focal point to coordinate with Nepali authorities.

Nepal has argued that it should not be viewed solely as a victim of climate change, pointing to its forests, mountains and biodiversity and the role its ecosystems play in carbon storage and maintaining regional water and climate systems.

The government said an early response from the fund would demonstrate that international climate finance can provide timely assistance to vulnerable countries facing losses beyond their capacity to address alone.