Nepal will make climate justice, the protection of the Himalayan region, climate adaptation and climate-related loss and damage the cornerstones of its agenda at the 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, scheduled to take place in Antalya, Turkiye, from November 9 to 20. Although the country contributes minimally to global emissions, the government plans to use the international stage to highlight the risks and losses Nepal faces from climate change. According to reports published by RatoPati and Khabarhub, Nepali representatives also intend to advance a distinctive argument: that the melting of the Himalayas and rising sea levels should be presented as a single environmental cycle, binding the fate of the world's highest peaks to that of its coastlines.
Mountains and oceans as one ecological cycle
The most distinctive element of Nepal's COP31 strategy is its decision to link the melting Himalayas and rising sea levels into one ecological narrative. In the negotiating halls, the two issues can appear to belong to different worlds: the shrinking of mountain glaciers concerns highland countries such as Nepal, while rising seas are most closely associated with coastal states and island nations. Nepal's plan challenges that separation and argues that the two phenomena are part of the same planetary system.
The logic of the linkage
The reasoning behind the framing is straightforward. The water locked in Himalayan snow and ice flows down rivers that eventually reach the sea, so changes high in the mountains and changes at sea level are connected parts of one hydrological cycle. Presenting the issue this way allows Nepal to describe climate impacts not as isolated regional problems but as a single, interconnected story of a warming planet, one that runs from the crests of the Himalayas down to the coastlines of distant nations.
Common ground between mountains and coasts
By drawing this connection, Nepal also positions itself alongside the countries most exposed to rising seas. A framing that treats mountain and ocean as one shared ecological cycle gives vulnerable nations on both ends of that cycle a common cause, strengthening the case that those least responsible for emissions deserve attention and support. For Nepal, which plans to highlight the risks and losses it faces despite its minimal contribution to global emissions, the linkage transforms a national concern into a global one.
Four priorities for the negotiating table
Nepal's agenda for COP31 spans the central themes of international climate diplomacy:
- Climate justice: Nepal will argue that a country contributing minimally to global emissions should not be left to bear the heaviest consequences of a crisis it did little to cause.
- Protection of the Himalayan region: Nepal will press for the mountains to be treated as a global priority, reflecting the central place the Himalayas occupy in the country's environment and its future.
- Climate adaptation: Nepal will emphasize the urgency of helping vulnerable communities adjust to impacts that are already unfolding, keeping adaptation at the forefront of the negotiations.
- Climate-related loss and damage: Nepal will highlight the losses and damages that fall beyond what adaptation can prevent, an issue that speaks to the irreversible costs now being absorbed by vulnerable nations.
Taken together, the four priorities present Nepal as a voice for countries that emit little yet stand to lose much, and they signal that the government views COP31 as an opportunity to seek concrete recognition of the predicament facing mountain nations.
A minimal emitter, an outsized burden
The paradox at the heart of Nepal's position gives its advocacy its moral force. Nepal contributes minimally to global emissions, yet the government plans to tell the international community that the country already faces significant risks and losses from climate change. This is the essence of the climate justice argument Nepal intends to make in Antalya: responsibility for the crisis and exposure to its consequences do not fall on the same places, and the international response must reflect that imbalance.
The pairing of adaptation with loss and damage is central to that argument. Adaptation addresses what vulnerable communities can still do to prepare for and withstand climate impacts, while loss and damage acknowledges the harm that can no longer be avoided no matter how well a country prepares. By pressing both issues, Nepal is seeking both the means to protect its future and recognition of what it has already been forced to endure.
The stage in Antalya
The Conference of the Parties is the principal international forum where nations negotiate collective responses to climate change, and the 31st session will bring that process to Antalya from November 9 to 20. For Nepal, it is the latest and most focused opportunity to ensure that mountain perspectives are not an afterthought in global climate talks. As Khabarhub reports, the government is preparing to carry a clear message to Turkiye: the melting of the Himalayas and the rise of the seas are chapters of the same story, and the nations watching their glaciers retreat and their coastlines erode share a common stake in the outcome.
What is certain is that Nepal intends to arrive in Antalya not as a passive participant but as an active advocate, armed with a defined agenda, a moral argument rooted in climate justice, and a vision of a planet in which the fate of its highest peaks and its coastlines is inseparable.
