In the Terai, a farmer faces a relentless uncertainty each monsoon. Some years bring drought that scorches his crops; others, rains that flood his home. Variability has always been part of the monsoon, but climate change sharpens its extremes, striking the same vulnerable lives again and again. Meanwhile, preparations are underway for COP30 in Brazil, where Nepal’s delegation will once again speak for mountain communities like theirs. But before another speech is delivered, one question demands an honest answer: After more than two decades of climate diplomacy, is this farmer’s life any better?
From this lens, the results are sobering.
The True Test of Climate Diplomacy
Nepal's climate vulnerability is undeniable. Glaciers are melting, monsoons are becoming erratic, and poor communities face a cascade of disasters: drought, crop failure, landslides, floods, and vanishing water sources.
Given this reality, the true test of our diplomacy isn't side events or mentions of “mountains” in UN texts; it’s whether a farmer in Sunsari has access to water, or a family in Sindhupalchok and Rasuwa can rebuild after floods without falling into debt.
By this measure, we are falling short of what is needed.
The Climate Finance Gap: Our Most Urgent Failure
Nowhere are the gaps more visible than in climate finance, despite important steps to improve access and coordination. Nepal needs more than $100 billion by 2050 just to meet the targets in its National Adaptation Plan and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Yet between 2012 and 2020, we received only $4.4 billion in international climate finance, according to a 2022 Oxford Policy Management study. Most of it came in the form of loans, not grants, adding to the country's debt, which has contributed almost nothing to the climate crisis.
As Nepal prepares to graduate from Least Developed Country (LDC) status, we lose access to concessional climate funding entirely, despite facing escalating climate risks. Without urgent diplomacy to secure vulnerability-based funding criteria and smooth transition mechanisms, Nepal will face bigger climate extremes with fewer resources.
A finance strategy must be at the heart of our COP30 agenda:
· Push for grant-based, long-term, locally governed adaptation finance, especially for mountain-specific challenges.
· Negotiate collectively with other LDCs and mountain nations to amplify leverage.
· Build internal capacity to design community-responsive project proposals that meet donor requirements while reflecting local realities.
Without this shift, we risk being unprepared for intensifying climate extremes, like the recent drought in the Tarai, floods in Rasuwa, and the ongoing water crisis across the mid-hills.
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Beyond Melting Ice, The Springs Crisis
Nepal’s global narrative often centers on melting glaciers. This is real and urgent, but it overshadows a slower, equally devastating crisis: the disappearance of springs in the mid-hills.
Traditional recharge cycles are breaking down. Water sources that once sustained entire villages are vanishing, driven by both climate and non-climate factors. This “silent emergency” threatens drinking water, sanitation, agriculture, and biodiversity.
Yet in global forums, springs rarely make the agenda. By focusing on iconic imagery of retreating ice, we neglect the water crisis that directly affects far more people. If we speak of “mountain ecosystems,” we must speak of disappearing springs with equal urgency, and demand finance, research, and technology to restore them.
Migration: The Missing Climate Agenda
One of Nepal’s biggest blind spots is the climate security of its migrant workforce, millions of young people in the Gulf, Malaysia, and South Korea, whose remittances keep rural economies alive. Climate impacts at home and in host countries, from heat stress to flooding, threaten their livelihoods and safety.
Labor protections, climate risk assessments, and adaptation finance tied to migration resilience should be part of our negotiation strategy. Without this, people who sustain our economy remain unprotected.
The Illusion of Recognition
Nepal has become a champion at securing symbolic recognition, successfully inserting “mountain ecosystems” into UN texts, hosting the Sagarmatha Sambad, and organizing high-profile side events. These achievements are not meaningless; they have raised Nepal’s profile and kept mountain issues visible on the global stage.
The real question is whether this visibility has translated into tangible gains for communities. Too often, recognition becomes the final goal, rather than the pathway to resources and solutions. COP30 offers a chance to change that by leading a mountain-specific adaptation agenda in alliance with the Andes and Hindu Kush regions, moving beyond familiar slogans to measurable outcomes. Recognition matters only if it brings resources, partnerships, and technology to the ground. Without that, it is diplomacy for display.
Weak Institutions, Weak Influence
Nepal’s climate diplomacy is coordinated by the Climate Change Management Division (CCMD) under the Ministry of Forests and Environment, a small unit with a narrow mandate and limited authority. Although it has been putting effort into coordinating with other ministries and agencies, the current structure limits our ability to respond at the scale the challenge demands.
This is compounded by the frequent turnover in the lead negotiator, usually held by a Joint Secretary, which changes frequently, eroding institutional memory, weakening relationships with negotiation actors, and preventing the development of long-term strategy.
We need a dedicated cross-ministerial climate diplomacy unit with both authority and continuity. Without this, even the best ideas risk getting lost in the churn of bureaucracy.
Neglecting the Regional Front
Our diplomacy also misses opportunities closer to home. India and China are both major emitters, economic powers, and critical players in transboundary water systems. Shared risks, groundwater decline in the Terai, downstream flooding, glacial lake outburst floods, demand joint early warning systems, data sharing, and research. Beyond risk management, regional engagement can open doors to bilateral climate finance, technology transfer, and knowledge exchange.
Yet regional cooperation is absent from Nepal’s COP strategy. This is a missed opportunity that limits both our influence and our access to resources.
Whose Priorities Are We Negotiating?
Nepal’s climate policies align well with international frameworks, and NDC 3.0 sets ambitious targets for energy transition, agriculture, and forest conservation. Yet these often mirror global trends more than the lived realities of farmers, migrants, or Indigenous communities. In practice, what fits global financing models tends to get implemented, while local realities are sidelined.
Mitigation projects, solar power, EVs, and forest carbon markets dominate. Adaptation priorities such as community-based water management, climate-resilient agriculture, and drought-response mechanisms remain marginal.
This is not only a funding gap but a political one: our negotiators are too often echoing global agendas instead of demanding support for national and local priorities.
Acknowledging Our Collective Role
Over the past decade, Nepal has made its COP preparation process more inclusive, engaging ministries, NGOs, youth, women’s groups, Indigenous communities, and persons with disabilities. The government has extended Party badges to non-government participants, though selection criteria remain opaque.
We must recognize the dedication of those who work within this system: government officials with limited resources, civil society advocates pushing for accountability, and local champions keeping the conversation alive.
I have engaged in this process since 2011 as a youth representative and civil society advocate, and since 2019 have participated in COPs both as an observer and as a Party delegate, organizing events, delivering interventions, and sitting in negotiation rooms where Nepal’s climate future is debated. My critique is not from the outside. I am part of this system and share responsibility for both its shortcomings and its potential.
From Recognition to Reform: Six Priorities for COP30
Despite these challenges, there are reasons for optimism. Nepal has, at times, successfully influenced global negotiation texts and forged meaningful partnerships with other vulnerable nations. We've demonstrated that small countries can have an outsized influence when they speak with clarity and conviction about their experiences.
The question is whether we can build on these foundations to create climate diplomacy that truly serves the people of Nepal. As COP30 approaches, we need to fundamentally reimagine our approach around six core priorities:
1. Put the Vulnerable First: Establish formal mechanisms that allow local governments, marginalized groups, migrant workers, and community networks to directly shape Nepal’s negotiation positions. If we claim to speak for the vulnerable, we must first listen to them systematically and consistently, from farmers in the Terai and mid-hill communities losing springs to labor migrants facing climate risks in the Gulf, Malaysia, and South Korea.
2. Push for Adaptation-Centered Finance: Nepal should lead a call for mountain-specific adaptation finance windows that are grant-based, long-term, and locally governed. We can do this by building strong alliances with other mountain nations and LDCs, and by tabling specific financing proposals with detailed evidence.
3. Establish Institutional Continuity: Create a dedicated, cross-ministerial climate diplomacy unit with the authority, expertise, and long-term stability needed for effective international engagement.
4. Realign Global Commitments with Local Plans: Future Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and climate policies must genuinely reflect domestic priorities and community needs, rather than being primarily shaped by external frameworks or technical assistance. This requires regular reviews of implementation gaps, with structured mechanisms for feedback from local governments and civil society.
5. Demand Justice, Not Just Recognition:Nepal must move beyond symbolic visibility and work to secure equity in finance, technology access, and capacity-building support. This means strengthening our voice in Loss and Damage negotiations, even when it requires challenging existing power dynamics.
6. Integrate Regional Climate Cooperation into COP Strategy: Nepal must formally incorporate the agenda of regional cooperation, particularly with India and China, into its COP preparation process. Shared challenges like GLOFs, floods, and groundwater decline demand joint action. Engaging neighbors ahead of COP can help align positions, attract bilateral climate finance and technology support, and strengthen Nepal’s credibility as a regional climate actor.
From Participation to Power
Nepal has been present in global climate talks for over two decades. Butwe must realizepresence is not power, and participation is not influence, not unless it delivers tangible change.
The true measure of diplomacy isn't the number of conferences we attend or the number of speeches we give, but whether a farmer has more reliable access to water, a family in Sindhupalchowk is better protected from floods and landslides.
Until Nepal’s climate diplomacy can answer those questions with a confident ‘yes,’ our work remains incomplete. The communities facing climate impacts today cannot wait for another decade of symbolic victories. They need Nepal's international engagement to translate into concrete support, immediate relief, and long-term resilience.
As we prepare for COP30, we have an opportunity to transform our approach from reactive participation to proactive leadership. The choice is ours: we can continue focusing on symbolic achievements, or we can ensure our climate diplomacy delivers for communities, providing water security, climate resilience, and real protection for those at risk.
The stakes are high and the time is short, but with a focused, inclusive, and resilient strategy, Nepal’s climate diplomacy can deliver the water security, resilience, and protection that communities deserve.
(The author is a graduate student in Water Science and Management at New Mexico State University. He has engaged in multiple UN climate and desertification negotiations as a Party delegate and civil society representative.)
