We have been sounding the alarms for climate-driven disasters for over a decade, although we could never have imagined the scale of the Kyirong-Rasuwa flood. Such a climate-driven disaster exposes to us the systemic gaps in high-mountain risk governance. It demands risk-informed reconstruction and land use, especially in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH), where low-emitting countries like Nepal pay an outsized price.

We see through our work that the climate risks are increasing, but the pace and scale of our science, financing and response mechanisms are yet to catch up.

In his recent address, the UN Secretary-General has underscored that the world is on course to overshoot the 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming threshold. But for the mountains, 1.5 degrees is already too much. The question is increasingly not simply how we cope with climate change, but how communities, ecosystems and countries survive in a rapidly changing climate reality.

This requires us to look beyond individual disasters and address the wider systems that determine how countries and communities prepare, respond and recover. Climate finance, science and updated information, preparedness, community support, institutional capacity and mechanisms to translate knowledge into timely action all need to be strengthened.

We also need to rethink global priorities. Mountains can no longer be treated as remote or peripheral regions. They are critical to the planet’s environmental and ecological security and provide essential water, ecosystems and livelihoods far beyond national borders.

Countries such as Nepal are increasingly struggling to cope with disasters that are becoming more frequent, severe and costly. A single major disaster can set development back by years. Recovery and reconstruction require enormous resources that many vulnerable countries simply do not have.

The estimated cost of Kyirong-Rasuwa flood recovery is expected to be enormous, amounting to over half of Nepal’s actual annual revenue collection. Rebuilding requires money. Better science requires investment. Preparedness requires sustained support. And communities need access to timely, trusted information before hazards become disasters.

Nepal’s message to the global community [through Shah’s address] could focus on appealing to the parties to establish a dedicated Himalayan window under the Loss and Damage Fund, fast-tracking an initial emergency tranche for Kyirong-Rasuwa as an explicit loss-and-damage case linked to climate-driven cryosphere change.

Short-term shocks to mountain countries will become long-term water security risks for one-quarter of humanity, as over 2 billion people depend on HKH waters. These impacts will eventually reach downstream populations worldwide, so we must prepare now.

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A version of this article was originally published in The Kathmandu Post.