The Danger of Ignoring Nepal

And finally, the people who live in these mountains and the billions who depend on the water flowing from them deserve a voice in climate policy. Nepal should be central to that conversation. We are not debating what climate change might do. We are already living it.

Nature has a way of reminding us just how interconnected and interdependent we are. A glacier destabilized in one country can, within minutes, devastate villages, infrastructure, and livelihoods in another, while the bodies of the dead are found hundreds of kilometers downstream in another country. Nepal, China, and India share not only mountains and rivers, but also a common exposure to the accelerating risks of climate change. We need more regional cooperation, and Nepal, sitting at the head of these shared watersheds, must play a central role.

Nepal’s mountains are our identity. They feed our rivers, our tourism, our sense of who we are. Now they are also ground zero for the climate emergency. The world needs to heed this warning: we need shared, urgent, and just action before more mountains give way.