07/09/2026
On August 26, a glacier collapsed above the Bhote Koshi river and pushed rock, ice and water down into Nepal. Nepal Police put the toll at 1,341 dead and 4,044 missing as of 7:40 AM on September 6.
On August 31, Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle and Minister for Agriculture, Forests and Environment Gita Chaudhary signed the letter above. It went to the co chairs of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, the UN backed climate fund agreed at COP27 in 2022. Nepal is the first country to ask it for emergency money after a disaster.
Dharma Raj Upreti, who heads Nepal's disaster authority, told Reuters the damage reaches 2.56 billion dollars, near 387 billion rupees. An earlier government estimate put it at 5 billion.
Rebuilding roads, shelter, water and power in the first four months alone costs 52.6 million dollars. The fund caps any single project at 20 million dollars, about 3 billion rupees. Its board has never approved a payment to any country. Its next scheduled meeting is December 10.
Climate Home News reported that developing country board members have asked the co chairs for an emergency session, and that the fund's secretariat did not answer a request for comment. Richard Sherman, a South African negotiator and the board's former co chair, told ThePrint any emergency payout would be "a symbolic action."
Twenty million would not cover Nepal's first four months. Some will call that a precedent worth setting. Others will call it a receipt.
