On 26 August, a wall of ice, rock and water tore through the Tibet-Nepal border and ran 72 kilometres down the Trishuli valley. It killed more than 1,400 people and damaged 12 hydropower plants, knocking out about a tenth of Nepal’s generating capacity. The country had spent a decade turning its glacier-fed rivers into an energy export business. Now it is buying power back from India. The bill is approximately US$2.7 billion in damage and lost output, and about US$4.7 billion to rebuild.

The money to pay for it is not there. The main fund set up to help poor countries after climate disasters can give no more than US$20 million for any one request, which covers just 0.7% of Nepal’s losses. Big donors, including the US and the UK, are cutting back. What is left comes mostly as loans, while a war in the Gulf pushes up fuel and food costs. Nepal’s prime minister called the flood “a warning to the world”.

This paper looks at who is listening, who is paying and what it means for the next country in line.

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