{"id":14491,"date":"2026-09-01T15:52:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T10:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/?p=14491"},"modified":"2026-09-01T15:54:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T10:09:41","slug":"demand-to-the-world-bank-grants-for-nepal-not-climate-loans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/demand-to-the-world-bank-grants-for-nepal-not-climate-loans\/","title":{"rendered":"DEMAND TO THE WORLD BANK: GRANTS FOR NEPAL, NOT CLIMATE LOANS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear President and Executive Directors,<\/strong><\/p>\n

I, Sunil Babu Pant, writing as a citizen of Nepal, raise my deep concern and firm opposition to the World Bank\u2019s proposed concessional financing for Nepal\u2019s relief and recovery following the devastating floods and landslides that struck the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river basins on 26 August 2026.<\/p>\n

This is not simply an ordinary natural disaster. It is part of the escalating climate crisis that Nepal has been confronting year after year\u2014destroying communities, homes, infrastructure, livelihoods and lives.<\/p>\n

Nepal is among the countries that have contributed the least to global greenhouse-gas emissions, yet we are among those facing some of the most severe consequences of a changing climate. Every year, Nepal suffers enormous economic and immeasurable human and ecological losses. Yet, when disaster strikes, the international financial system too often responds by offering more debt to a country already suffering from the consequences of a crisis it did not create.<\/p>\n

This is not climate justice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I reject the logic that Nepal should have to borrow its way out of a climate catastrophe.<\/p>\n

The World Bank has indicated that approximately NPR 25 billion could be mobilised for Nepal\u2019s emergency response through disaster-financing mechanisms, including the Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown Option (Cat DDO). While concessional financing may carry favourable terms, concessional debt is still debt. A disaster-stricken country should not be expected to take on additional sovereign liabilities simply to rebuild after climate-related destruction.<\/p>\n

A disaster should not become another source of sovereign debt.<\/p>\n

Nepal should not be compelled to pay interest and repay principal for climate disasters to which it has contributed so little.<\/p>\n

The principle must be simple:<\/p>\n

Those who have contributed most to the climate crisis must bear a greater share of its costs\u2014not transfer those costs onto the poorest and most climate-vulnerable countries through loans.<\/p>\n

I therefore call upon the World Bank to immediately convert the proposed financing for Nepal\u2019s flood response, recovery and reconstruction from loans\/credits into grants.<\/p>\n

I also demand climate-justice debt relief.<\/p>\n

Where immediate conversion of existing financing into grants is not possible, the World Bank and other international creditors should work with Nepal to establish a Climate-Resilience and Disaster-Recovery Debt Swap mechanism.<\/p>\n

Under such a mechanism, debt-service obligations could be cancelled, reduced or redirected into a nationally owned fund for climate adaptation, disaster recovery and resilience.<\/p>\n

Resources released through a debt swap should support:<\/p>\n

reconstruction of climate-damaged communities and infrastructure;<\/p>\n

resilient roads, bridges, schools, health facilities and settlements;<\/p>\n

restoration of rivers, forests, watersheds and ecosystems;<\/p>\n

protection of livelihoods and local economies;<\/p>\n

early-warning systems and disaster preparedness;<\/p>\n

climate adaptation in vulnerable mountain and river-basin communities; and<\/p>\n

long-term climate resilience for future generations.<\/p>\n

A debt swap must not become another form of climate conditionality or a substitute for climate finance. It must be transparent, nationally owned, additional to grants and Loss and Damage finance, and must not create new debt for Nepal.<\/p>\n

Nepal needs access to Loss and Damage finance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The international community has acknowledged the principle of Loss and Damage for countries suffering irreversible and severe impacts of climate change.<\/p>\n

Nepal must have direct, accessible and grant-based access to Loss and Damage finance for climate-induced disasters.<\/p>\n

Climate finance should not come through a revolving door in which one institution provides a loan, another provides a loan to repay it, and vulnerable countries are left carrying the accumulated debt.<\/p>\n

Loss and Damage must not become Loss and Debt.<\/p>\n

I therefore call upon the World Bank to:<\/p>\n

1. Provide grants, not loans<\/p>\n

Immediately convert the proposed financing for Nepal’s flood emergency response, recovery and reconstruction into 100% grant financing.<\/p>\n

2. Establish a Climate-Resilience Debt Swap<\/strong><\/p>\n

Work with Nepal and other creditors to create a transparent Debt-for-Climate-Resilience and Disaster-Recovery mechanism, reducing or redirecting debt-service obligations toward nationally determined climate resilience and recovery priorities.<\/p>\n

3. Support debt cancellation and restructuring<\/strong><\/p>\n

Engage with Nepal’s multilateral, bilateral and other creditors to explore debt cancellation, restructuring and suspension, particularly where debt servicing limits Nepal’s capacity to respond to climate disasters.<\/p>\n

4. Facilitate Loss and Damage finance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Support Nepal’s access to the international Loss and Damage financing architecture, with priority given to grants rather than new debt.<\/p>\n

5. Ensure climate finance does not deepen inequality<\/strong><\/p>\n

All climate and disaster financing should be transparent, accessible, nationally owned and designed to protect the most vulnerable communities, without harmful conditionalities.<\/p>\n

6. Make climate finance additional<\/strong><\/p>\n

Debt swaps, debt restructuring and other financial mechanisms must not be counted as substitutes for new and additional grant-based climate finance.<\/p>\n

I call on the Government of Nepal to stand with its people.<\/p>\n

I urge the Government of Nepal to clearly and firmly reject any approach that responds to climate-induced disasters by unnecessarily increasing Nepal’s sovereign debt burden.<\/p>\n

Nepal should demand from the World Bank and other international financial institutions:<\/p>\n

Grants, not loans.<\/p>\n

Debt relief, not debt accumulation.<\/p>\n

Loss and Damage finance, not climate debt.<\/p>\n

Climate justice, not climate conditionality.<\/p>\n

Nepal cannot rebuild its future by borrowing against it.<\/p>\n

A country that contributed so little to creating the climate crisis should not be required to borrow its way out of its consequences.<\/p>\n

The people of Nepal need solidarity from the international community\u2014not another cycle of debt.<\/p>\n

I need solidarity, not more climate debt.<\/p>\n

I need grants, not climate loans.<\/p>\n

I need climate justice, not climate debt.<\/p>\n

In Climate Justice and Solidarity,<\/p>\n

Sunil Babu Pant<\/p>\n

Constituent Assembly Member of Nepal <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear President and Executive Directors,
\nI, Sunil Babu Pant, writing as a citizen of Nepal, raise my deep concern and firm opposition to the World Bank\u2019s proposed concessional financing for Nepal\u2019s relief and recovery following the devastating floods and landslides that struck the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river basins on 26 August 2026.
\nThis is not simply an ordinary natural disaster. It is part of the escalating climate crisis that Nepal has been confronting year after year\u2014destroying communities, homes, infrastructure, livelihoods and lives.
\nNepal is among the countries that have contributed the least to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":14492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1827,8,621,490,3,2065],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-issue","category-diplomacy","category-human-rights","category-news","category-slider","category-society","category-top-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14491","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14491"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14495,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14491\/revisions\/14495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}