India and China aren't friends - but Nepal wants to unite them against climate threats

Nepal’s proposed Himalayan Climate Resilience Mechanism is a plan for Nepal, India, and China to work together against climate-related dangers in the Himalayas. It would strengthen cross-border disaster response and encourage countries to share scientific data, research, and expertise. The goal is to manage risks that do not stop at national borders.

The mechanism could help countries exchange warnings about landslides, avalanches, and glacial lake outburst floods. It could also support joint understanding of glacier retreat, permafrost thaw, and changing rainfall. These threats affect rivers, communities, infrastructure, and livelihoods downstream across several countries.

The proposal remains at an early stage. Nepal’s foreign ministry is preparing a preliminary framework to build common understanding. India and China had not formally responded when the article was published, so it is not yet an operating agreement.

Nepal wants cooperation because climate threats in the Himalayas are regional, not confined to one country. Rising temperatures are accelerating glacier retreat and permafrost thaw. That increases risks from landslides, rockfalls, avalanches, and glacial lake outburst floods. Several major rivers also begin on the Tibetan Plateau and flow through countries including Nepal, India, and Bhutan.

A disaster in one mountain area can therefore affect people and infrastructure far downstream in another country. Glacial lakes may expand as glaciers retreat, then release sudden floods. Landslides and avalanches can also damage roads, settlements, and livelihoods across borders. Shared data and scientific expertise could help countries prepare more effectively.

Cooperation is difficult because India and China have a disputed frontier of roughly 3,500km. Their territorial disagreements have produced war, deadly clashes, and military stand-offs. Nepal’s proposal tries to separate urgent environmental cooperation from those wider disputes.

The environmental changes are large and accelerating. A March report found that glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalaya are losing ice at twice the rate recorded during 1974–1999. The article also reports that glaciers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau have shrunk by 24% in area over the past six decades.

Glacial lakes are expanding as glaciers retreat, increasing the danger of sudden outburst floods. The Tibetan Plateau now has more than 14,000 glacial lakes covering over 1,100 square kilometres. The article does not give a precise percentage or total area increase for the lakes, but it identifies their expansion as a growing hazard.

These changes affect more than mountain scenery. Warmer conditions are contributing to permafrost thaw and increasing risks from landslides, rockfalls, avalanches, and floods. A 2024 study also projected significantly higher landslide hazards across the Himalayas and Tibet because of increased rainstorms.

When landslides, avalanches, or glacial lake outburst floods cross national borders, they can threaten communities that are far from the original mountain hazard. Water, rock, ice, and debris may move downstream through river systems. Roads, bridges, buildings, farms, and other infrastructure can be damaged or destroyed.

The article highlights glacial lakes as one important mechanism. As glaciers retreat, lakes can expand. If a lake suddenly releases water, the resulting flood can travel into countries such as Nepal, India, and Bhutan. Major rivers flowing through these countries originate on the Tibetan Plateau, linking mountain changes to downstream risks.

The consequences also include deaths, disrupted livelihoods, and emergency-response demands. Because one country’s warning or response may affect another country, shared scientific data and cross-border planning matter. Nepal’s proposed mechanism is intended to improve that cooperation, although it remains only an early-stage proposal.

Cooperation is difficult because India and China have competing territorial claims in the Himalayas. Their disputed frontier stretches roughly 3,500km, much of it across the mountains. The dispute has already led to war, deadly clashes, and repeated military stand-offs along the Line of Actual Control.

This political and security tension makes sharing information and conducting joint work harder. The countries may both face glacier retreat, floods, landslides, and avalanches, yet those shared dangers do not erase their disagreement over territory. The mountains are simultaneously an environmental system and a contested frontier.

The article gives a clear example of limited trust: a 2009 agreement for joint glacier research produced only one meeting, according to scientist DP Dobhal. India and China have found common ground at United Nations climate negotiations, but they still lack a dedicated agreement for Himalayan climate impacts. Nepal is trying to create a new political opening.

The article identifies one previous India-China effort to cooperate on Himalayan climate research. In 2009, the countries agreed to study how global warming was affecting glaciers in the Himalayas and Tibet. India’s then environment minister Jairam Ramesh announced that the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology and a Chinese research institute would collaborate.

The initiative produced little. DP Dobhal, who led the Wadia Institute’s glaciology programme, said one meeting took place between the two sides and that nothing came from it. The article does not explain the precise institutional or political reason the project stalled, so its limited result cannot be attributed to a specific cause from the supplied text.

The article also does not describe a previous India-China agreement to share river data. It says several rivers cross borders and that India and China lack a dedicated Himalayan climate-impact agreement. Nepal’s new proposal therefore remains an early attempt to build broader cooperation.

A warming climate raises temperatures in the Himalayan region faster than the global average, according to the article. Warmer conditions accelerate glacier retreat, meaning glaciers lose ice and shrink. They also thaw permafrost, the frozen ground that helps stabilize mountain terrain. As ice and frozen ground weaken, risks from rockfalls, avalanches, and landslides increase.

Glacier retreat can leave or enlarge glacial lakes. These lakes may suddenly release large amounts of water in glacial lake outburst floods. The danger is especially serious because water can move through river systems across national borders. The article also connects increased rainstorms with rising landslide hazards across the Himalayas and Tibet.

The changes reinforce one another: warmer temperatures reduce glacier and permafrost stability, while intense rain can trigger failures on vulnerable slopes. A 2024 study projected significant increases in landslide hazards in coming decades. The greatest relative increase was projected on the Tibetan Plateau.