KATHMANDU – Nepal is demanding climate compensation from the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases after deadly floods in the country killed more than a thousand people and left even more missing.

China, the United States and India have made “extremely large” contributions to climate change and left smaller nations “enduring the price of it”, Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal told Kantipur TV.

“Nepal must hold its head high internationally and turn this into a matter of justice,” he said in the interview, which was broadcast earlier in the week. “We will raise this matter explicitly and forcefully on international platforms.”

Nepal’s demand for climate compensation follows the Aug 26 flash floods in the Bhotekoshi River basin, triggered by a massive rock and ice collapse near the Nepal-Tibet border.

The official death toll has risen to 1,114, with nearly 4,000 people still missing, according to the authorities, as floodwaters destroyed homes, key bridges and critical hydropower infrastructure.

The demand comes ahead of the United Nations’ annual climate summit in November, where developing nations are expected to press wealthier, high-emitting countries for more funding to cover climate-related losses and damage.

Nepal’s push adds to a broader debate over who should bear the financial cost of disasters linked to a warming planet.