Climate change played role in Nepal-Tibet floods: World Weather Attribution study

Kathmandu: A new study has found that human-induced climate change likely contributed to the glacier collapse that triggered devastating floods along the Nepal-Tibet border.

The BBC cited the World Weather Attribution study as saying the disaster was a compound event involving rising temperatures, thinning glaciers, thawing permafrost and existing geological weaknesses.

Dr Friederike Otto, a climatologist at Imperial College London and a co-author of the study, said there was “absolutely no doubt” that human-induced climate change played a role in preconditioning the disaster.

Scientists had previously linked the floods to the collapse of a glacier slope near Langtang Lirung in Nepal’s Himalayas.

The study says temperatures in the area during July and August were around 1.5 degrees Celsius higher due to human influence on the climate.

Glaciers in the region have also been thinning by about half a metre a year, potentially weakening existing fractures and increasing instability.

Heavy snowfall in October and November last year added to the amount of meltwater earlier this year.

The study says these factors may have interacted and amplified the disaster.

However, researchers stressed that climate change was not the sole cause. It acted as a destabilising factor on top of pre-existing geological conditions.