Kathmandu, Sept. 10 -- For a country that contributes little to global greenhouse gas emissions, Nepal is paying an increasingly high price for climate change.

Floods, landslides, glacial lake outburst floods and other climate-related hazards are destroying homes, roads, farms and other infrastructure with growing regularity. Each disaster brings an immediate bill for rescue and reconstruction. It also raises a less visible cost: making development more expensive and less secure, experts say.

"Higher disaster risks mean increased cost of development," said Mani Nepal, an applied economist at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

Nepal can reduce the disaster damage, he said, but only by spending more be...