Wagle seeks special climate finance package for Nepal at COP31
Nepal's finance minister told COP31 that grants, soft loans and debt relief are needed after disasters, saying the government cut other development and social budgets to pay for recovery.
The title of the session was a statement in itself. Swarnim Wagle, Nepal's finance minister, spoke in Turkiye on 11 November 2026 at the Nepal Pavilion of the 31st Conference of the Parties, or COP31, on "Full Bill of Disaster: Debt, Credit Rating and Currency after Climate-induced Shocks and the Form of Support Package".
The framing treats a disaster not only as a humanitarian event but as a balance-sheet event, with consequences for borrowing costs and fiscal room that outlast the rescue effort. That reading is analysis, drawn from the session's title and Wagle's remarks.
What Wagle asked for
Wagle said vulnerable countries, Nepal among them, need a special international financial package for post-disaster reconstruction and economic recovery. He named three components: grants, concessional loans and debt relief.
Grants add nothing to a country's debt. Concessional loans carry lower interest and longer repayment than commercial borrowing. Debt relief eases obligations already on the books. Together they form a ladder of support, from free money to cheaper money to lighter old burdens. No figure for the size of the package was given, nor any institution to provide it.
His central claim was that Nepal cannot carry the financial burden of climate-induced disasters alone.
The cost already paid at home
The most concrete detail in his remarks concerned the domestic budget. To find money for rescue, relief and reconstruction, the government had to cut spending in other development and social sectors. Wagle said the disaster hit schools, hospitals, social security and other development programmes directly and severely.
The mechanism matters to a global audience. A country with limited revenue and little borrowing room does not simply add reconstruction on top of existing plans. It reallocates. The visible cost is the damaged road or school; the less visible cost is the programme postponed elsewhere to pay for it.
Source: Nepal News, 11 November 2026
A first grant, and its limits
Wagle thanked India, China, the UK, the US, the European Union and countries in the Middle East and the Gulf for help during the disaster.
He also said nearly $20m had been received as grants for the first time from the UN Loss and Damage Fund, a mechanism meant to compensate poorer countries for climate harm. At the central bank's rate of Rs 150.59 to the dollar, that is roughly Rs 3bn. He welcomed it, but said the fund's resources are very low compared with the needs of countries at risk.
That is the real message. The fund exists, which is progress, but in his telling its size does not match the demand.
What it means for Nepal's financing
The following is analysis, drawn from the facts above.
First, the choice of topics signals where Nepal sees its exposure. By linking disasters to debt, credit rating and currency, the government is pointing to the way shocks can feed into how lenders and markets judge a country. A disaster that forces spending cuts and new borrowing can weaken the fiscal position that investors examine.
Second, the request for concessional terms is a case for avoiding expensive debt. For a country whose budget has already been squeezed, replacing grant money with commercial loans would shift the cost to future years.
Third, presenting the case at a pavilion devoted to the subject suggests an effort to build support among other climate-vulnerable states, since a joint case usually carries more weight than a single appeal.
For businesses, the practical stakes are in the public budget. Contractors, suppliers and banks exposed to government spending depend on how reconstruction is funded. If external money is scarce, domestic projects compete for a smaller pool, as the cuts to social and development programmes already show.
What to watch
- Whether COP31 produces any text on a dedicated package for climate-vulnerable countries, and whether it names grants, concessional loans or debt relief.
- Whether further disbursements follow the first nearly $20m from the UN Loss and Damage Fund.
- How the government restores the social and development budgets that were cut for reconstruction.
- Whether Nepal turns the appeal into specific figures for what it needs.
How this story was made: researched and written by The Standard’s desk with AI assistance, from the published reporting and official data credited below, and checked against those sources. Our standards.
