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UNITED NATIONS — <\/span>Nepal’s prime minister scolded fellow world leaders Thursday, saying the nation’s recent deadly flood<\/a> reminds a warming world that climate change keeps hurting people<\/a> who didn’t cause the crisis but now need help.<\/p>\n The August disaster \u201cwas not just a local tragedy. It was a warning to the world. And I ask you today: Have you really heard that warning?\u201d Nepali Prime Minister Balendra Shah<\/a> said at the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday night. \u201cNearly three years ago, standing in the shadow of our Mount Everest, the secretary-general of the United Nations warned<\/a> about humanity about the madness and impending climate disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat cry from the rooftop of the world was not heard enough,\u201d Shah said. \u201cWe in Nepal heard it. Our communities heard it. Scientists around the world heard it. They repeated it with evidence. But we, the political leaders, have been negligent to translate those warnings in action at the speed and scale that the vulnerable people require.\u201d<\/p>\n International scientists have connected<\/a> melting permafrost from climate \u2014 caused by burning coal, oil and gas \u2014 to the instability of the glacier, which partly collapsed and triggered a massive flood that has killed at least 1,400 people with even more still missing. <\/p>\n Shah said that Nepal contributed less than one-tenth of 1% of the heat-trapping gases behind climate change<\/a>. About 99% of Nepal’s electricity<\/a> comes from hydropower, and many workers were trapped in tunnels by the flooding.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did not create this crisis, yet we are paying a colossal price for it,\u201d said Shah, 36, a former rapper and engineer who is the youngest head of government to address the General Assembly this year. \u201cOur glaciers are retreating, our mountain slopes are becoming unstable, our rivers are becoming less predictable, and every major disaster threatens to erase years of development.\u201d<\/p>\n In a black Dhaka topi, a traditional brimless Nepali hat, Shah spoke while wearing his signature dark sunglasses, which he uses for medical reasons. He said \u201cthe tragic consequences of a warming climate\u201d tells the world that \u201cclimate change does not recognize borders. Glaciers and floods do not travel with stamps and passports.\u201d<\/p>\n Subeksha Khadka, a humanitarian and former Miss Nepal International, in an online interview, praised Shah’s speech and echoed the warning: “This time Nepal has been on the target, but it could be anyone. This is our story right now, and it can be anybody else\u2019s tomorrow. So it\u2019s time to act.\u201d<\/p>\n Shah didn’t ask for a specific amount in aid, but he called the international financial aid system inadequate and too bureaucratic. This included a loss and damage fund agreed upon a few years ago for poor nations hit by climate disasters not of their own making.<\/p>\n \u201cClimate finance must not become another bureaucratic maze through which vulnerable countries spend years\u201d maneuvering through when they need help. \u201cWhen the house is burning, we do not ask a family to complete 50 forms. We act. This is what climate justice means.\u201d<\/p>\n He exhorted the General Assembly to act on relief, rehabilitation, reconstruction \u2014 which are traditional international help concepts \u2014 but also \u201cresponsibility, reparation, resilience.\u201d Reparation is a word and an issue that rankles industrial western nations like the United States, which is historically the world’s biggest carbon emitter. <\/p>\n Over the past 75 years, the United States has spewed about 1,500 times more carbon into the air than Nepal has, according to the Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists that track greenhouse gas emissions by countries. Historical emissions matter because carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for more than a century trapping heat.<\/p>\n The U.S. this week announced $31 million in aid to Nepal for flood recovery, which bring America’s total financial help up to $36 million. It’s less than 1% of what they need.<\/p>\n \u201cPreliminary assessments indicate that from recent disaster alone, Nepal has suffered loss of over $5 billion, nearly 15% of our GDP and a third of our annual budget,” Shisir Khanal, Nepal’s foreign minister, said Wednesday at the UN climate summit. “Thus for Nepal, this catastrophe is not merely a humanitarian emergency. It is a development emergency dismantling years of progress. It is a justice crisis exposing the inequities of global climate action and it is an existential crisis striking at the very survival of our communities and our future.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened in Nepal is not an isolated disaster but a preview of what awaits many vulnerable nations,\u201d Khanal said.<\/p>\n Former United States Vice President Al Gore said in an interview that Nepal’s disaster shows that the climate crisis \u201cwas getting worse much faster\u201d than people can handle and foreshadows problems with melting glaciers that feed all of the great rivers of Asia, putting the water supply of 2 billion people at risk.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Delgado reported from New York. Associated Press writer Jennifer McDermott<\/a> contributed to this report.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n