Climate justice tops agenda as Nepal PM Balen flies to UN office

KATHMANDU: Nepal PM Balendra Shah will make his first foreign trip almost six months after taking office when he travels to New York later this month for the 81st UN General Assembly, where Nepal's Bhote Koshi-Trishuli disaster is expected to anchor his push for climate justice, reconstruction assistance and stronger international protection for the Himalayan region. Shah assumed office on March 27 and has so far travelled neither to India nor China, breaking bilateral traditions.Singha Darbar had initially planned to send foreign minister Shisir Khanal to lead Nepal's delegation, but the scale of the flood prompted calls within the ruling establishment and outside it for Shah himself to take Nepal's case before world leaders. The high-level UN General Debate begins Sept 22.Shah has already framed the disaster in global terms. "Climate change is a global problem," he said while speaking about the flood this week. "Mitigating and managing its impacts is a shared responsibility of the international community." In a separate statement, he said it was time for Nepal to "strongly raise" before the international community the disasters the country was facing because of climate change.Climate experts want him to go further in New York and make a specific case for compensation and climate finance, rather than limit his intervention to appeals for assistance. "Nepal is paying the price for a crisis it didn't create," climate policy expert Aarti Khosla said, saying the disaster showed why climate action had to be placed at the centre of development planning.Former finance minister Barshaman Pun, who submitted a set of recommendations to Shah, has urged him to demand compensation for losses caused by rising global temperatures and carbon emissions.Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.