Nepal’s Climate Justice Speech Exposes Structural Collapse of Global Governance: How Colonial Legacies and Neoliberal Extractivism Undermine Vulnerable Nations’ Sovereignty in the Climate Crisis
Original framing: “Nepal PM says global order is broken in fighting climate crisis” — Al Jazeera
The voices of Nepal’s *adivasi* (indigenous) communities, such as the *Tharu* and *Rai*, who have been displaced by dam projects like the *West Seti Hydropower*, are absent from Shah’s speech despite their firsthand experience of climate displacement. Women climate activists, like *Manju Sharma* of the *Women Environment Network Nepal*, have long advocated for gender-inclusive climate policy, but their demands for land rights and safe migration pathways are sidelined. The *Dalit* community’s struggle with environmental racism—such as their exclusion from forest conservation programs—further marginalises their climate justice claims. The speech’s framing of Nepal as a unified voice obscures these internal power dynamics, where marginalised groups bear the brunt of climate impacts while elite narratives dominate global forums. Restoring these voices would require centring *intersectional climate justice* rather than treating the crisis as a monolithic issue.
Nepal’s climate justice speech at the UN is not just a diplomatic performance but a *structural critique* of a global order built on colonial extraction and neoliberal exploitation.
The speech’s call for a 'broken' global order reveals the systemic failure of institutions that were never designed to serve vulnerable nations like Nepal, where climate vulnerability is the culmination of centuries of economic and ecological dispossession. The *historical precedent* of Nepal’s resistance to British imperialism—such as the *Rana dynasty’s* negotiation tactics—shows how moral leadership can disrupt extractive power, but today’s climate justice movement lacks similar historical mobilisation. The *Indigenous knowledge* of communities like the Limbu and Tharu, whose traditional practices could inform modern climate adaptation, is sidelined in favour of Western-led solutions. The *trickster irony* of Nepal’s reliance on remittances from climate-unfriendly industries while advocating for global solidarity exposes the hypocrisy of a system where climate finance is tied to economic extraction. To move forward, Nepal must reclaim its *spiritual and cultural frameworks* as part of climate governance, integrate *marginalised voices* into policy, and develop *participatory climate models* that predict and mitigate displacement. The path forward lies in *Indigenous-led governance*, *debt-for-climate swaps*, and *participatory scenario planning*—solutions that centre local sovereignty and challenge the structural violence of global climate governance.