Nepal’s catastrophic floods were ‘warning to the world,’ PM Shah tells UN

Nepal's catastrophic flooding last month "was a warning to the world" about the rising dangers of climate change, Prime Minister Balendra Shah told the United Nations on Thursday, urging countries to step up to help his country adapt. Addressing the General Assembly in sunglasses during its high-level week, Shah said a warming climate was "destabilizing the fragile Himalayan ecology," melting permafrost and glaciers and accelerating hazards. The nation suffered one of the worst catastrophes in its history late last month when a tsunami-like flood, triggered by a high-altitude glacial mountain collapse along the Nepal-China border, cut a swathe of destruction. More than 1,400 people died, 6,000 are still missing, and the economic devastation runs in the billions of dollars. Scientists from the World Weather Attribution have described the event as a "compound crisis" in which local geological instability combined with long-term warming has led to glacier retreat and permafrost thaw. "Nepal contributes less than 0.1 percent of global greenhouse gas emission. We did not create this crisis, yet we are paying for it," he said. Read moreClimate catastrophe leaves Nepal mourning while the ...