Green Climate Fund approves $36.1 million grant to protect Nepal from glacial lake outburst flood

July 2, Kathmandu: The Green Climate Fund (GCF), in its 42nd Board Meeting held in Papua New Guinea, has approved a $36.1 million grant, equivalent to nearly Rs 5 billion, to bolster Nepal’s defenses against the escalating threat of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), a growing climate risk in the Himalayas.

The project, titled Protecting Livelihoods and Assets at Risks from Glacial Lake Outburst Floods and Climate Change-Induced Flooding in Glacial River Basins of Nepal, was unanimously endorsed, according to Dr. Sindhu Prasad Dhungana, GCF’s alternate board member for Least Developed Countries, who attended the meeting.

This seven-year initiative, led by Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), aims to protect over 2.2 million people in the Koshi and Gandaki river basins.

Key activities include upgrading early warning systems, lowering water levels in four high-risk glacial lakes—Thulagi, Lower Barun, Lumding Tsho, and Hongu 2—and strengthening riverbanks through reforestation and protective infrastructure, such as check dams and vegetative gabion walls.

With an additional $14 million in co-financing from the Government of Nepal, UNDP, and the Independent Power Producers’ Association Nepal, the project is expected to set a global example for climate risk reduction in mountainous regions.

UNDP Nepal’s Resident Representative, Kyoko Yokosuka, described the initiative as a “game-changing” investment in resilience, while Kamal Ram Joshi, Director General of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, emphasised its role in safeguarding vulnerable Himalayan communities, particularly as 21 glacial lakes in Nepal face high outburst risks.