In the language of karma, the one who creates the cause eventually receives its vip\u0101ka\u2014its fruit, its consequence.<\/p>\n
But climate change has created a cruel new kind of karma.<\/p>\n
Call it climate karma.<\/strong><\/p>\n The people who burn the most fossil fuels, consume the most resources and accumulated wealth through centuries of carbon-intensive industrialisation are not necessarily the people suffering the worst consequences. Instead, the vip\u0101ka is increasingly being delivered to people who contributed almost nothing to the problem.<\/p>\n Nepal is one of them.<\/strong><\/p>\n The catastrophic flooding in the Bhote Koshi\u2013Trishuli region this week, following a glacier and ice-rock collapse in the Himalayas, has shown once again how brutally exposed Nepal is. Hundreds have been killed across Nepal and Tibet, thousands are missing, and the destruction of bridges, roads, settlements, border infrastructure and hydropower facilities could require US$4\u20135 billion for reconstruction\u2014nearly 10% of Nepal’s economy.<\/p>\n This is not simply another natural disaster.<\/p>\n It is a warning about what happens when a warming planet destabilises the Himalayas.<\/p>\n Scientists have repeatedly warned that rising temperatures are accelerating glacier retreat and destabilising ice, rock and permafrost in high mountain regions. The Langtang region, for example, has experienced a dramatic acceleration of glacier loss.<\/p>\n And yet Nepal’s contribution to the climate crisis is tiny.<\/p>\n 1. Look at the numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n According to the latest Global Carbon Budget data compiled by Our World in Data, in 2024:<\/p>\n – An average American emitted about 14.2 tonnes of CO\u2082.<\/p>\n – An average Chinese citizen emitted about 8.7 tonnes.<\/p>\n – The average citizen of the European Union emitted about 5.4 tonnes.<\/p>\n – The average Nepali emitted only about 0.63 tonnes of CO\u2082.<\/p>\n In other words, the average American’s fossil-fuel and industrial CO\u2082 emissions were more than 22 times those of the average Nepali. The average Chinese citizen emitted about 14 times more, while the average EU citizen emitted about 8.5 times more.<\/p>\n The disparity becomes even more uncomfortable when we look at history.<\/p>\n The United States alone is responsible for about 23.5% of cumulative global CO\u2082 emissions since the beginning of the industrial era\u2014the largest share of any country. China accounts for about 15.4%, while European countries collectively have contributed an enormous historical share. The European Union’s historical contribution is close to one-fifth when measured in the commonly used historical accounting framework.<\/p>\n Nepal, by comparison, has contributed only around 0.05% of historical global emissions, according to climate experts cited in current reporting.<\/p>\n Yet it is Nepal’s mountains that are melting.<\/p>\n Nepal’s glaciers are retreating.<\/p>\n Nepal’s rivers are becoming more dangerous.<\/p>\n Nepal’s roads, bridges, hydropower projects and villages are being washed away.<\/p>\n And Nepal is being asked to find billions of dollars to rebuild.<\/p>\n This is the injustice at the heart of the climate crisis.<\/p>\n Climate justice cannot mean sympathy alone<\/p>\n For decades, developing countries have been told that climate change is a shared responsibility.<\/p>\n Yes, the atmosphere belongs to everyone.<\/p>\n But responsibility is not equally shared.<\/p>\n There is a profound difference between someone who has driven a car powered by fossil fuels for generations and someone who has barely had access to electricity.<\/p>\n There is a difference between economies built on coal, oil and gas and a country whose people have contributed almost nothing to atmospheric carbon accumulation.<\/p>\n There is a difference between those who accumulated wealth while emitting carbon and those who are now being forced to spend scarce development money simply to survive climate disasters.<\/p>\n So when a country like Nepal asks for climate finance, it should not be treated as charity.<\/p>\n It is a matter of climate justice.<\/p>\n Nepal needs resources not only for long-term adaptation but also for loss and damage\u2014for the lives, homes, infrastructure, livelihoods, ecosystems and cultural heritage already being destroyed.<\/p>\n The international community has created a Loss and Damage Fund. But the scale of money promised so far remains tiny compared with the actual needs of vulnerable countries.<\/p>\n 2. But who will pay the climate karma?<\/strong><\/p>\n This is the question Nepal must ask loudly.<\/p>\n The countries and economies that accumulated enormous wealth through fossil-fuel-driven development cannot simply congratulate themselves for making new climate pledges while vulnerable countries are left to pay the reconstruction bill.<\/p>\n If Nepal needs US$4\u20135 billion after this disaster, where will that money come from?<\/p>\n Will it come from Nepal’s already limited health and education budgets?<\/p>\n Will Nepal have to borrow more money and increase its debt to rebuild infrastructure destroyed by a warming climate?<\/p>\n Will ordinary Nepalis\u2014who emitted almost nothing compared with citizens of wealthy countries\u2014have to pay for this disaster through higher taxes and reduced public services?<\/p>\n Or will the countries most responsible for historical emissions finally accept that climate finance is not foreign aid but a form of climate responsibility?<\/p>\n This is where the idea of climate karma becomes uncomfortable.<\/p>\n The karma-doers are not necessarily the karma-bearers.<\/p>\n The people who created the largest share of the problem are often protected by wealth, technology, insurance, infrastructure and geography.<\/p>\n The people who contributed least are often standing in the floodwater.<\/p>\n 3. Nepal should stop asking for charity<\/strong><\/p>\n Nepal should therefore make a much stronger case internationally.<\/p>\n We should not go to climate negotiations merely as a poor country asking rich countries for assistance.<\/p>\n We should go as a country saying:<\/p>\n We did not create this crisis, but we are paying for it.<\/p>\n Nepal should demand predictable, accessible and grant-based finance for loss and damage, glacier monitoring, early-warning systems, climate-resilient infrastructure, disaster preparedness and the protection of Himalayan ecosystems.<\/p>\n And Nepal should insist that international climate finance reach mountain communities\u2014not disappear into complicated international mechanisms, consultancy contracts and bureaucratic procedures.<\/p>\n The Himalayas are not only Nepal’s problem.<\/p>\n They are a critical water tower for Asia.<\/p>\n The rivers originating in these mountains sustain hundreds of millions of people far beyond Nepal’s borders.<\/p>\n Protecting the Himalayas is therefore not an act of generosity toward Nepal.<\/p>\n It is an investment in the future of Asia and the planet.<\/p>\n 4. The real test of climate justice<\/strong><\/p>\n Climate justice will not be measured by how beautifully world leaders speak at climate conferences.<\/p>\n It will be measured when a country like Nepal is hit by a climate-fuelled disaster and asks for billions to rebuild.<\/p>\n Will the countries that became wealthy through centuries of carbon-intensive development stand beside Nepal?<\/p>\n Will they provide the money without pushing Nepal deeper into debt?<\/p>\n Will they share technology, expertise and early-warning systems?<\/p>\n Will they help Nepal protect its glaciers and mountain communities?<\/p>\n Or will the world once again express condolences, send a few emergency grants and move on?<\/p>\n The Bhote Koshi disaster should therefore become more than another tragedy in Nepal’s long list of disasters.<\/p>\n It should become a test of the credibility of climate justice itself.<\/p>\n Because if the climate karma-doers refuse to pay their share of the vip\u0101ka, then \u201cclimate justice\u201d remains only a slogan.<\/p>\n And Nepal cannot rebuild its future with slogans.<\/p>\n The world created a warming planet together\u2014but it did not create the damage equally. The bill must therefore not be shared equally. It must be shared fairly.<\/p>\n That is not charity.<\/p>\n That is justice. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the language of karma, the one who creates the cause eventually receives its vip\u0101ka\u2014its fruit, its consequence.
\nBut climate change has created a cruel new kind of karma.
\nCall it climate karma.
\nThe people who burn the most fossil fuels, consume the most resources and accumulated wealth through centuries of carbon-intensive industrialisation are not necessarily the people suffering the worst consequences. Instead, the vip\u0101ka is increasingly being delivered to people who contributed almost nothing to the problem.
\nNepal is one of them.
\nThe catastrophic flooding in the Bhote Koshi\u2013Trishuli region this week, following a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":14485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1827,1081,492,490,3,2065],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-issue","category-diplomacy","category-explanationawareness","category-opinion","category-slider","category-society","category-top-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14486,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14484\/revisions\/14486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}