Nepal, Nov. 2 -- As Nepal seeks international climate finance, questions remain over who will receive the money, whether it will come as grants or loans, and how much will reach affected communities rather than infrastructure.

For Pema Wangmo Lama, an Indigenous climate activist from the Mugum community who has followed UN climate negotiations since the 2015 Paris Agreement and spoke at the opening plenary of COP28, the disaster points to deeper problems in Nepal's development model. She argues that climate finance should reach affected communities directly, that Indigenous peoples must have a meaningful say in decisions about their territories, and that general disaster recovery funds should go towards rebuilding communities rather than...