Nepal is going to the 31st UN climate conference (COP31) in Antalya, Türkiye, to ask for money to protect its mountains and rebuild after climate disasters.
Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal left on November 7 and is due to speak at the opening plenary on November 9 and attend the Leaders’ Summit on November 11 and 12. He is scheduled to return on November 14, while the conference continues until November 20.
The delegation includes Agriculture, Forest and Environment Minister Gita Chaudhary,
National Planning Commission member Prof. Dr Sanjaya Acharya
and Secretary Dr Rajendra Prasad Mishra. Khanal has named four priorities: the Himalayan agenda, climate-related damage and loss, climate finance and climate justice.He argues that protecting the mountains is a shared global responsibility, because the Himalayas affect water, food and energy supplies for millions of people beyond Nepal. He will also hold meetings with foreign ministers and other officials.
Nepal’s national plans set out the scale of the money it says it needs. The National Adaptation Plan, launched in November 2023, estimates adaptation costs for 2021 to 2050 at US$47 billion. Nepal expects to cover about US$1.5 billion, roughly 3.2%, and the remaining US$45.9 billion to come from outside the country. Its third Nationally Determined Contribution, submitted in May 2025, needs about US$73.7 billion.
International support is expected to supply 85% of it, about US$62.65 billion.The NDC also commits Nepal to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 26.8% by 2035 compared with a business-as-usual path, and to raise renewable electricity capacity to 28,500 megawatts by 2035.
The scientific case rests on work by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu. Its March 2026 findings say ice-loss rates across the Hindu Kush Himalaya have doubled since 2000. Glaciers lost about 12% of their area and about 9% of their estimated ice between 1990 and 2020. The region has more than 63,700 glaciers covering nearly 55,782 square kilometres, and about 78% of glacier area between 4,500 and 6,000 metres is highly exposed to warming that increases with elevation.
Three-quarters of the glaciers are smaller than 0.5 square kilometres, and these are shrinking faster than the larger ones. ICIMOD’s April 2026 snow update found snow persistence 27.8% below the long-term average, the fourth straight year below normal.
Ten of the region’s 12 major river basins were below normal, and nearly two billion people depend on rivers that start in the region.
On loss and damage, two separate decisions already exist.
The Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage confirmed US$20 million for Nepal under its Barbados Implementation Modalities, based on three proposals submitted earlier in 2026. That money is still going through further processing before release.
Separately, on October 22 the fund’s board provisionally set aside US$21.6 million for Nepal after the August 26 Bhotekoshi flash floods, at its first extraordinary meeting. Nepal asked for urgent help on August 31, in a letter signed by Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle and Minister Chaudhary, without giving a final amount because losses were still being assessed.
The board agreed to let Nepal submit a request outside the standard period.The fund was agreed at COP27 in 2022 and operationalised at COP28 in 2023, and it is a support mechanism, not a court that awards damages.
Nepal will also co-host a high-level event with Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Bhutan and Pakistan titled “Advancing the Mountain Agenda: Glaciers, Cryosphere and Resilience under Overshoot, Shared Responsibility and Sustainable Financing.” The event is not a financial agreement, and its value will depend on whether it produces commitments or a follow-up mechanism.
Nepal has also proposed a partnership called Sagarmatha to the Sea, which Khanal introduced at a pre-COP leaders’ event in Fiji in October. It aims to link mountain countries with island states that face sea-level rise. It is a proposal, not an operating alliance.
Nepal says it wants grants and concessional finance, not loans, since loans would add to its debt for damage it did little to cause. Climate expert Kushal Gurung has made that argument.
At COP29 in 2024, countries agreed that developed countries should lead in mobilising at least US$300 billion a year for developing countries by 2035, within a wider goal of US$1.3 trillion a year from all sources.
Getting funds is a staged process: a pledge, an approval, completion of procedures, disbursement and then projects reaching communities.
The US$20 million confirmation shows why the stages matter. Nepal will also need strong project proposals, damage assessments and systems to spend and report funds.
And no single flood or landslide can be put down entirely to climate change, since rainfall, terrain, land use and infrastructure also play a part, so attribution will need scientific backing.
At COP31 the things to watch are Khanal’s address on November 9, the Leaders’ Summit on November 11 and 12, the five-country event, loss and damage talks and his bilateral meetings.The test is whether any recognition turns into funding that reaches mountain communities.
