Nepal disaster has declared a climate alarm, Chinese minister warns | Today’s news
China’s top environment official has pointed to August’s deadly glacier collapse and flooding in Nepal as an urgent warning of the accelerating risks of climate change as world leaders and diplomats prepare for annual global talks.
“The iceberg avalanche that recently appeared along the Nepalese border has once again sounded the alarm for us,” said Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu at the One Earth Summit in Hong Kong on Wednesday. “Climate change is not a potential danger, but a real risk facing humanity today.”
The disaster, which killed more than 1,400 people in Nepal and 43 in Tibet, has sparked fresh debate about the adequacy of climate finance and disaster relief – issues to be discussed next month at the UN’s COP31 summit in Antalya, Turkey.
Nepal, one of Asia’s poorest countries, estimates initial economic losses and damages totaling at least $2.69 billion, with long-term recovery and reconstruction requirements likely to be about $4.71 billion. A UN fund set up to help developing countries recover from climate disasters earlier this month agreed to set aside about $20 million for Nepal.
China has become a major global provider of climate finance, offering $2 million in direct bilateral aid to its neighbor in the immediate aftermath of the floods. Still, China and other nations came under pressure from Nepal to contribute more.
The world’s No. 2 economy has long insisted its capacity is limited by its own status as a developing country, a source of frustration for climate advocates who want the nation to do more.
China is also helping the global energy transition by reducing the cost of green technologies that help fight climate change, Huang said in his speech.
“We will take advantage of China’s huge market and wide range of real-world applications to accelerate clean technology modernization and contain costs, help the global South share in the benefits of green development, and better promote global energy transformation and South-South cooperation,” Haung said.
China’s wind and solar products exported between 2021 and 2025 helped the world avoid about 4.1 billion metric tons of carbon emissions overseas, Huang said, citing an official estimate previously used by officials.
This article was generated from an automated news agency source without text modification.
