Kathmandu, June 22. Protests were held on Thursday in front of the French Embassy in Kathmandu, coinciding with the opening day of the Paris Summit for a New Global Financial Pact. The protestors called on participating wealthy nations to acknowledge their responsibility in providing “reparations which include adequate and unconditional non-debt creating finance to save people and the planet.”

According to an official release, the demonstration in Kathmandu was part of a larger mobilization across the Asian region, with similar protests held in Dhaka, New Delhi, Jakarta, Lahore, Colombo, and Manila, all in front of French embassies.

Lidy Nacpil, Coordinator of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), addressed the crowd at the protest, stating, “In the midst of the multiple crises that are pushing billions of people into extreme poverty and pushing the planet beyond disastrous tipping points, we are witnessing the rise of flawed and deceptive initiatives that claim to address the need for financial solutions to support developing countries.”

During the protest, Abhishek Shrestha of the Digo Bikas Institute expressed concerns about the participation of wealthy nations and profit-oriented stakeholders, highlighting the potential for further debt entrapment and corporate profit-making.

Reshma Shakya from LDC Watch emphasized the necessity of reparations from major polluters to address the impacts of climate change in developing nations. “We do not want corporate exploitation of our labor and further corporate appropriation of our resources. To address the devastating effects of climate change in many developing nations, including Nepal, we demand reparations from companies, especially the major polluters responsible for the climate disaster,” Shakya noted.

According to the latest studies on carbon emissions, 23 rich industrialized countries are accountable for 50 percent of all historical emissions, while 125 billionaires individually contribute to greenhouse gas emissions one million times more than the average person. Another study reveals that rich nations could face liabilities of $170 trillion in climate reparations by 2050, with an annual payment of $6 trillion proposed for low-polluting developing countries.

The two-day summit, chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron on June 22 and 23, aims to establish a consensus on a global finance pact to fund Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and promote economic decarbonization.