Dr Karki demands grant-based climate reparations for countries like Nepal

Antalya — Member of Nepal’s Federal Parliament, Dr. Arjun Kumar Karki, has called on developed nations to fulfil their climate finance obligations through predictable, public, and grant-based funding rather than loans, declaring that climate justice requires reparations measured in “trillions, not billions.”

Speaking at a panel discussion titled “Turning Climate Declarations into Action” at the Nepal Pavilion on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya on Thursday, Dr. Karki framed climate finance not as charity, but as a moral and historical debt owed by the Global North to the Global South. The event was organized by LDC Watch in collaboration with the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) and the Parliamentarians Network for a Fossil-Free Future.

Representing a Himalayan nation bearing the brunt of a crisis it did little to create, Dr. Karki pointed to recent glacier-rock avalanches and catastrophic floods in Nepal that have claimed lives, destroyed infrastructure, and displaced communities.

“Climate finance is not simply a matter of international financial commitments or negotiation figures,” Dr. Karki said. “It is about people’s lives, their right to safety, their livelihoods and their future.”

‘Too Little, Too Late’

Dr. Karki criticized the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) of USD 300 billion annually by 2035—agreed upon at COP29 in Baku—as “too little and too late,” noting that the broader call to scale finance to $1.3 trillion remains merely an aspiration rather than a binding target.

Dr. Karki urged COP31 negotiators to establish concrete outcomes operationalizing Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement, which legally obligates developed nations to provide financial resources rather than merely mobilize private capital.

Emphasizing that the quality of finance is as critical as its quantity, he warned that loan-based climate funding deepens the debt crisis across Least Developed Countries (LDCs). “We cannot be expected to borrow money to address a crisis we have contributed very little to creating,” he stated.

Speaking on behalf of the Parliamentarians Network for a Fossil-Free Future, Dr. Karki stressed that adequate finance is a practical necessity for developing nations to transition rapidly to 100% renewable energy systems. Beyond reaching net-zero domestically, wealthy nations must fund mitigation efforts in the Global South as part of their fair share of global climate action, not as carbon offsets, he added.

During the session, parliamentarians from LDCs and partner nations echoed Dr. Karki’s call to advance the 2026 Dili Ministerial Declaration on Climate Change, urging Global South governments to stand firm in demanding accessible, grant-based public resources at scale.