Climate activist Greta Thunberg has backed the Nepal government’s demand for climate compensation, holding global governments and corporates responsible for the deadly glacial collapse and flash flood as the death toll surged to 1,344 on Saturday, while over 5,000 people remain missing.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg has called for climate reparations for Nepal, holding wealthy countries and fossil fuel companies responsible for the climate crisis, as the death toll from the devastating glacial collapse and flash floods rose to 1,344, with 4,887 people still missing.

“Stop calling it aid. Stop calling it generosity. What is owed to Nepal is climate debt — money that is due because of harm that was caused, not a gift that so-called developed countries get to decide whether or how much to give”, Thunberg said in a video posted on Instagram.

The climate activist said the scale of the Himalayan tragedy, while “unfathomable”, should not be regarded simply as a natural disaster. She linked the glacier collapse to emissions “primarily from financially fortunate countries and fossil fuel companies that have made enormous profits extracting and selling the fuels that have caused the climate crisis”.

“The world cannot say we didn’t see this coming,” Thunberg said, adding that climate reparations were desperately needed and that the lives lost and destroyed represented the reality and cost of climate change.

“Countries like Nepal are talked about at every climate summit. They are rarely talked with. There is a difference between being in a case study in someone else’s presentation and being a voice in the room where decisions get made. That has to change”, Thunberg said.

Thunberg expressed solidarity with the people of Nepal and said the global climate justice movement would not allow the tragedy or the loss of lives and livelihoods to be forgotten.

“This is not a country asking the world to clean up a mess it made. It’s a country already largely doing its part, cleaning up a mess it did not cause and asking the rest of the world to do the same.”

Thunberg’s remarks came days after Nepal’s foreign minister Shisir Khanal called for the disaster to be viewed through the lens of climate justice rather than charity.

Khanal had said that Nepal, despite contributing “virtually negligible” greenhouse gas emissions, was bearing a disproportionate share of the consequences of global warming.

Khanal had identified China, the US and India as the world’s three largest greenhouse gas emitters and said they have a “historical responsibility to compensate vulnerable nations like Nepal”.

However, Khanal later walked back on his statement and clarified that Kathmandu has not approached India for financial compensation. “Neither I nor anyone in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Government of Nepal has claimed or asked for compensation from India or any other country, including China or the United States,” Khanal said in an interview to ANI.

Nepal Prime Minister Balendra Shah is set to visit the US later this month to address the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, where he is likely to raise the issue of climate change and seek compensation from the international community over the devastating flash floods.

PM Shah earlier stated that the government had dispatched a ‘formal climate compensation claim letter’ to international partners.