Nepal plans to use a new study linking climate change to the deadly floods last month as the basis of a financial request from a United Nations fund.

The BBC understands that Nepal hopes to claim around $20m (£15m) from the UN Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, which helps countries affected by climate change.

Around 1,400 people have died in the disaster while 6,150 people remain missing in Nepal as of Wednesday, according official data.

The study by research group World Weather Attribution, published on Thursday, says climate change was a likely contributing factor in the avalanche of rock and ice that unleashed devastating floods on the Nepal-Tibet border last month.

There was "absolutely no doubt that human-induced climate change played a role here in the preconditioning of the disaster", said Dr Friederike Otto, an Imperial College London climatologist who co-authored the study.

Massive floods and landslides swept through border towns and villages in Nepal and Tibet, wiping out thousands of houses, destroying energy infrastructure and leaving thousands dead or missing.

Scientists say the floods were caused by a collapse of rock wall and glacier ice near the peak of Langtang Lirung, a mountain on Nepal's side of the Himalayas.

The study said the disaster was the result of a "compound event" caused by rising temperatures, thinning glaciers, thawing permafrost and pre-existing geological weaknesses

According to the study, July and August temperatures in the area were around 1.5C (2.7F) warmer "due to human influence on the climate".

Meanwhile, glaciers in the region had also been thinning by about half a metre (1.6ft) a year, which could weaken existing fractures and increase instability.

Heavy snowfall last October and November also added to a large amount of meltwater early this year.

Climate change, while not the only cause of the disaster, was a "destabilising factor acting on a pre-existing geological predisposition", the study said.

In the wake of the floods, Nepal's leaders have said the country needs around $5bn (£3.7bn) to rebuild itself.

The UN Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, which came into operation last year, requires countries to submit evidence proving that the losses they faced were caused by climate change.

Nepali officials had been preparing satellite and drone images, as well as preliminary reports, to back up its request to the fund.

But the World Weather Attribution report is now the strongest evidence for their claim that climate change was a significant factor in the collapse of rock and ice at Langtang Lirung, authorities say.

The report "will be the main basis of our claim as it has detailed what role climate has played in this disaster," said Maheshwar Dhakal, spokesperson for Nepal's Ministry of Agriculture, Forest and Environment.

Nepali authorities have called for global efforts to tackle climate change, saying the country is one of the lowest contributors to greenhouse emissions yet one of the most vulnerable places to the effects of global warming.

In his first foreign trip as Nepali Prime Minister, Balendra Shah is set to appear at United Nations General Assembly in New York next week to talk about the recent disaster and climate justice.

"Nepal has repeatedly used the term 'compensation' to describe much-needed recovery funds," said Danya Liu, a climate adaptation specialist at BloombergNEF.

"The distinction points toward a polluter-pays model, rather than one in which affected countries shoulder most of the cost and rely on aid to fill the gaps."

But it remains to be seen if Nepal will be able to secure the funds it urgently needs for reconstruction efforts along its flood-hit border - and how quickly it can do so.

Nearly 120 countries have already submitted claims to the UN Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, with requests totalling at nearly $3bn (£2.2bn).

But the fund reportedly has just less than $400m (£300m) allotted for disbursement.

Nepalese officials have said that while they have garnered wider support from some countries to disburse funds to Nepal rapidly, other countries have stressed the need to follow rules and procedures.

Officials responsible for the UN fund are scheduled to meet in December to decide which requests would be accepted - and whether it would make an urgent decision for Nepal.

According to the World Weather Attribution study, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Nepal in 2015 and triggered a rock-ice avalanche could have also weakened the underlying rock mass - though it said it could not confirm the earthquake's precise impact on the recent disaster.

The study has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. According to the World Weather Attribution website, its studies all use the same peer-reviewed method in analysing extreme weather events.

Its findings build on what other experts had suggested in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

Some had previously told the BBC that rising temperatures in the Himalayas was a likely factor in the rock-ice avalanche.

Dr Simon Cook, a glacier expert with the University of Dundee, told the BBC last month that while it was hard to attribute any single event to climate change, "climate warming ultimately destabilises these high mountain environments".

Cook also told the BBC on Thursday that the World Weather Attribution report was a "very worthwhile study" about the underlying causes of the recent disaster.

And while it provides "some strong evidence that climate change was a key factor", he said "we are not yet at a point of being able to say exactly how this happened".

"There remains much to learn about the processes involved... and what we can do to monitor these high-mountain regions to provide early warnings of such events in the future."

 

SOURCE/AUTHOR : BBC NEWS/Koh Ewe and Navin Singh Khadka, Environment correspondent