Khanal Urges Climate Justice for Vulnerable Nations Ahead of COP31

Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal has said Nepal and the geographically distant Pacific island nations are facing similar climate threats despite being separated by thousands of kilometres.

Addressing the high-level Leaders Plenary at the Pre-COP Leaders Event in Fiji, Khanal highlighted the close connection between the Himalayas and the oceans and said climate change has created a shared crisis for mountain and island nations.

He pointed to recent glacier, glacial lake and ice-rock collapse incidents in Nepal, which caused major loss of lives, saying the consequences of climate change are not confined to the mountains. As Himalayan glaciers melt, he noted, sea levels are rising while the Pacific region is facing increasingly intense cyclones and storms.

“The mountains and oceans are an inseparable part of the same planet, connected by a shared water cycle and humanity’s common future,” Khanal said.

Khanal stressed the climate injustice faced by vulnerable developing countries that have contributed little to global greenhouse gas emissions but are bearing a disproportionate share of the consequences.

Presenting Nepal’s priorities for the upcoming COP31, he reaffirmed Nepal’s commitment to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C. He called for predictable, grant-based adaptation finance without adding debt burdens to vulnerable countries and urged the effective implementation of the Loss and Damage Fund.

Khanal also proposed a formal “Sagarmatha dekhi Samundra Samma” (From Sagarmatha to Ocean) partnership between mountain and ocean-based nations facing similar climate risks.

Recalling Fiji’s Solesolevaki and Nepal’s Shramadan traditions of collective action, he said global solidarity and coordinated leadership are essential to turning shared climate risks into meaningful climate justice on the road to COP31.