Nepal has proposed a regional climate cooperation mechanism involving India and China to strengthen disaster preparedness and scientific data-sharing as rising temperatures intensify environmental threats across the Himalayas, reports the BBC.
Nepal Prime Minister Balendra Shah made the proposal at the recent United Nations General Assembly, calling for a Himalayan Climate Resilience Mechanism to improve cross-border disaster response and scientific cooperation.
"Let the Himalayas become a laboratory of international co-operation rather than a frontier of fragmented information," Shah said, recalling devastating debris floods that struck Nepal in August.
The proposal faces significant geopolitical hurdles, as India and China have long been embroiled in territorial disputes along their roughly 3,500km Himalayan frontier. However, experts say the growing risks of climate-related disasters make regional cooperation increasingly urgent.
Temperatures across the Himalayan region are rising faster than the global average, accelerating glacier retreat and permafrost thaw while increasing the risks of landslides, rockfalls, avalanches and glacial lake outburst floods.
A report released in March by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) found that glacier ice loss across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region has accelerated, with the rate doubling since 2000 compared with the 1974–1999 period.
On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, glaciers have shrunk by 24% in area over the past six decades, according to Kang Shichang, director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment.
The plateau now has more than 14,000 glacial lakes covering over 1,100 square kilometres, China's People's Daily Online reported.
Previous cooperation efforts stalled
In 2009, India and China agreed to conduct joint research into the effects of global warming on glaciers in the Himalayas and Tibet. The initiative was expected to involve India's Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology and China's Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute.
"One meeting was held between us and the Chinese side, and that was it; nothing came out of it," he said.
Under agreements dating back to the early 2000s, China provided India with flood-season hydrological data on the Brahmaputra and Sutlej rivers, both of which originate in Tibet.
However, Indian junior foreign minister Kirti Vardhan Singh told parliament in August 2025 that both agreements had expired. China stopped sharing Brahmaputra data in June 2023, while India had received no Sutlej data since 2022.
Despite these setbacks, some analysts see opportunities for renewed cooperation following a recent improvement in India-China relations, including high-level political engagement and moves to revive cross-border trade through Himalayan routes.
"These developments suggest there might be more room for the three countries to explore climate-related co-operation," said William Yang, senior analyst for Northeast Asia at the International Crisis Group.
Experts call for practical steps
Kathmandu-based ICIMOD has spent more than three decades promoting regional cooperation, including through flood early-warning systems. However, disagreements over sensitive information, particularly river-flow data, have limited progress.
Arun Bhakta Shrestha, a former senior specialist at ICIMOD, said countries could begin by sharing less sensitive information on disaster risks rather than comprehensive river-flow data.
Uday Kala, head of the Centre for Climate Change and Disaster Management at India's IIT Mandi, recommended practical measures, including jointly identifying high-risk glacial lakes, agreeing on basic data-sharing protocols and monitoring standards, and exchanging urgent warnings without delay.
Nepal's proposal seeks to persuade the two regional powers to set aside longstanding differences and work together against climate threats that do not stop at national borders.