PM Balendra Shah addressed the UN General Assembly's 81st session today using his first speech as a head of government to describe last month's deadly flood as global warning
.This also marks his first international visit since taking office in March. Shah used the platform at global stage to light upon various topics around the flood and climate change. Here are some of the topics addressed by PM Shah at the General Assembly of the United Nations:
1)The Bhotekoshi Trisuli flood as a "warning to the world": Shah framed last month's disaster as more than just a local tragedy. He told the Assembly, "The Bhotekoshi-Trishuli disaster was not just a local tragedy but a warning to the world" and questioned leaders directly " Have we really heard that warning". He said he came" from Nepal- a distant country in the HImalayas, carrying a close warning for humanity" which signals to the recent tragedy being a early signal of climate change.
2) Human toll- deaths, missing, displacement: Shah cited at least 1,400 confirmed deaths and more than 6,000 people still missing. He also went on to describe about families still waiting for missing relatives, communities searching through mud and rock for bodies, and roads, bridges, schools, homes and livelihoods swept away within minutes reflecting the disaster's scale in human to be just more than the numbers we see.
3) Rejecting loans as the answer to climate disaster: This was Shah's central financial argument: " When a climate-driven disaster destroys the infrastructure of a poor country, the answer simply cant be another mega loan or a patchwork of small grants." Shah argues that climate vulnerable countries such as ours shouldn't have to take on more debt to repair damage that they didn't cause.
4)Recovery cost- roughly 10% of GDP- Shah also explained the cost needed for the recovery of physical infrastructure needs about 10% of the country's GDP which convey the scale of reconstruction relative to Nepal's economy and the scale of the economic cost that we have to pay for something we didn't even cause. Loan alone doesnot suffice for our reconstruction.
5)Broader climate justice argument for low-emission countries: The core address of Nepal's speech and activities during this whole UNGA cycle was a diplomatic and simple ask: the countries which have contributed least to global carbon emissions are suffering the earliest with the worst consequences and they deserve climate justice and compensation- the theme addressed by UN Secretary General António Guterres in his own opening remarks calling for major polluters to pay, developed countries to increase adaptation finance and governments to make the loss and damage fund effective.
Alongside the speech, Shah held a separate meeting with Guterres . For a leader six months into office and on his first foreign trip, this was less a routine national statement than a deliberate attempt to turn a domestic tragedy into an international argument.
Shah is expected to be returning tommorrow to Nepal.
