Nepal does not need sympathy. Nepal demands climate justice.
Dr. Karki underscored that the climate crisis requires a collective response because its impacts do not respect national borders. For vulnerable mountain countries such as Nepal, she stressed, climate action is not simply about environmental protection—it is about protecting lives, livelihoods, development gains and the future of communities.
She proposed AFPPD to call upon parliaments of its member countries to place climate vulnerability and demand for climate justice firmly as major parliamentary agenda transform global climate commitments into concrete legislation, financing and action.
Dr. Toshima Karki, former State Minister of Nepal, is a directly elected Member of Parliament representing Nepal’s governing Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP). She has been elected twice from the same constituency, Lalitpur-3, securing 53.5% of the vote in her first election and a decisive 64.4% in her second, reflecting strong and growing electoral support. A general surgeon by profession, Dr.Karki continues to raise voices for Health, youths, woman empowerment and good governance.
Topics: nepal, does, demands, sympathy, climate, justice
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0:00Honorable Chair, Excellencies,
0:02Fellow Parliamentarians, UNFPA Representatives,
0:05Delegates, Ladies
0:06and Gentlemen, Namaste.
0:08I bring greetings from Nepal,
0:10a country home to eight of 14 highest peaks
0:13of the world,
0:14including Mount Everest.
0:16For generations,
0:17we have protected something for the world,
0:20the snow, forests, rivers,
0:22glaciers and the Himalayan ecosystem.
0:25But today, I come with a warning from the Himalayas.
0:28I'm here to tell you, the snow is disappearing and with it, the safety of my people.
0:35Just a week back, a devastating glass circle lapse near the
0:38Nepal-China border triggered catastrophic flash floods across the
0:43Bodeco series.
0:44As of today, we lost more than 1200 lives.
0:47We rescued more than 11,000 but still more than 4,000 people are still missing.
0:53Roads, bridges, homes, schools, health posts, businesses,
0:57hydro power projects and infrastructures that
1:01took us decades to build were destroyed in minutes.
1:04Even as I speak here today, rescue and relief operations are still continuing.
1:10We sincerely thank the governments
1:13and people around the world who stood with
1:16Nepal with relief,
1:17finance and humanitarian support.
1:19However, this is not simply a disaster.
1:22But an alarm from the roof of the world,
1:26Nepal contributes only around 0.03% to the global
1:30greenhouse emissions.
1:31Yet, it is among highly vulnerable countries to
1:34the impacts of climate change.
1:37and most affected are vulnerable populations.
1:40A broken road means a mother facing obstructive labor
1:43cannot reach emergency care,
1:45or child may not be able to run.
1:47The chronic illness it has released
1:50may make rapid evacuation difficult,
1:53more prone to infection, trauma and mortality.
1:56Person with disabilities may suffer
1:58delayed evacuation and inaccessibility to shelter.
2:02So our demographic resilience and
2:04Here, economy has been seriously affected.
2:07The status is a stark.
2:09ECMOT says the rate of glacier loss
2:12has doubled since 2000.
2:14Our farmers face 16 months in patterns.
2:17Our agricultural productivity is under pressure.
2:20We face repeated floods and landslides.
2:22And every time we lose infrastructures,
2:25cultural heritage, business, connectivity,
2:28and most painfully, we lose families, we lose lives.
2:32We did not build the smokestacks.
2:34We did not burn the coal.
2:36Yet our children are compelled to bury the parents.
2:39And parents to the children under the deprise of crisis
2:42are certainly elsewhere.
2:45With a painful heart, I say, climate crisis for us
2:48is not just an environmental crisis.
2:51It's a development crisis, an economic crisis,
2:54a food crisis, a public health crisis,
2:57and ultimately a crisis of justice.
3:00fellow parliamentarians,
3:02I'm standing here today not simply to describe
3:05Nepal's vulnerability only,
3:07but also Nepal is demonstrating responsibility.
3:11We have committed to net zero emission by 2045.
3:15Our NTC-30's prevalence are climate commitments. We are expanding renewable energy,
3:21promoting electric mobility,
3:23protecting forests,
3:24and investing in climate resilient development.
3:27Nepal has also launched Healing Himala
3:30Initiative to strengthen environmental
3:33protection and
3:34rich duration. Today I do not come to plead,
3:38I come with demands because this is what justice requires.
3:43First, highly emitting nations must compensate
3:46less emitting nations like Nepal so predictable
3:51of accessible and additional annual competition.
3:55Dedicated climate finance adaptation,
3:57as well as loss and damage fund,
3:59we delivered instantaneously, not in decades,
4:02but right now.
4:05Second, invest in early warning systems
4:07and ironically, some dedicated funds
4:10for natural hazards monitoring
4:12like Servir Hindu Guzmimalayam.
4:15Servir HKH has been cut off.
4:18You need to understand us.
4:20We need advanced real-time monitoring capacity
4:23through technology transfer and shared satellite
4:26and seismic data, not charity, but partnership.
4:31Third, reduced short-lived climate
4:33pollutants, especially black carbon,
4:36that accelerates
4:37glacier melting far beyond what carbon dioxide alone does.
4:46Every fraction of degree we debate in this halls
4:49falls and now says ice loss, as floods,
4:53and as displaced families in the Himalayas.
4:56Finally, debt reliefs should be treated as climate action.
5:00Countries like Nepal cannot build climate resilience by rebuilding
5:05the same infrastructures again and again, and that also with borrowed money.
5:11fellow parliamentarians,
5:13the Himalayas are often called the third pole
5:16and water tower of Asia.
5:17Nearly two billion people across Asia depend on
5:20water systems connected to these mountains. Therefore,
5:24protecting the Himalaya is not only Nepal's responsibility, it is a shared
5:37AFBPD to call upon its parliamentary
5:40network to make climate change,
5:42climate resilience,
5:44and climate finance a standing priority in the respective parliaments.
5:48Let this conference adopt a clear
5:50declaration today,
5:52a declaration that begins a global
5:54parliamentary movement to turn climate
5:57commitments into legislation, finance,
5:59and action.
6:00My country did not choose this crisis.
6:04My country did not choose this crisis nor did we
6:07contribute to insignificantly.
6:10Yet we are suffering this tremendously.
6:14Nepal does not need sympathy.
6:17Nepal demands climate justice. Thank you.
6:28As it fell, it triggered a magnitude of 5.2 tremor.
6:34Detach ice mixed with rock, water and soil created what's known as a debris flow.
6:40About 20 kilometres downstream,
6:42this border crossing between China and Nepal was hit
6:46seven minutes later.
6:48The water swept everything away at a speed of about 150 kilometres per hour.
6:55The wave was powerful enough to surge up the mountain side.
7:00Residents were at first in shock,
7:03then in panic as a bridge was swept away in
7:07an instant,
7:09seeming to come from every direction.
7:11By this point, the wave had already torn through more
7:14than 80 kilometres and it still wasn't finished.
7:18Still had enough force to roll over this massive
7:22This was not water rising.
7:24This was a wall of liquefied rock, ice, and mud.
7:27There was no rainstorm and no warning.
7:30Hydro power plants, roads, and bridges were destroyed within minutes,
7:34and the surge kept going,
7:35carrying debris and people more than 100
7:38kilometers downstream.
7:39Foddies are being pulled out of rivers,
7:42100 kilometers downstream,
7:43from where the mountain gave way.
7:49Thank you, Kojima,
7:51for the briefing and for the appeal on behalf
7:56of Nepal to AFPPD and to the
7:59national community.