Nepal has been identified as the fourth most vulnerable nation to climate change in the world. It faces complex environmental problems that are differentiated further by topography. Within an average span of 4.097° N latitude (26.337° and 30.434° N) and an approximate north-south distance of 184 km, the elevation ranges from 62.75 m in the south (latitude, 26.3717° N, and longitude, 86.926° E) to 8848 m in the north (latitude, 27.9875° N, and longitude, 86.9267° E). While the south experiences unprecedented floods and high temperatures ranging from 10° to 48 °C, the north faces a frigid tundra climate (−36 °C/−33 °F to −18 °C/−0.04 °F at the peak of Mt. Everest). The north also is prone to glacial retreats and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) because of the rapid melting of ice due to high rates of increase in temperature at higher altitudes than at lower elevations. The mid-hills face problems such as floods, landslides, and water shortages. Variations in regional rainfall patterns continue to affect the environment. In the mountain region, the annual rainfall ranges from 140 mm (in the west) to 900 mm (in the east). In the mid-hills, temperature fluctuates from place to place, where the soils are very thin and extremely erodible in steep slopes with very little organic matter to bind them together. Lack of irrigation facilities has caused limited farming to some areas, especially, along the narrow terraces in the mid-hills. Though the southern Tarai plain has been serving as a breadbasket for Nepal, it is also not free from climate anomalies. Unprecedented floods often wash away fertile farmlands from the Tarai plain. Global climate change is affecting the patterns of rain events, hydrological cycles, and associated floods and landslides, crop production, and habitat shift, encouraging the incidence of new diseases and parasites. These geographic variations in Nepal’s landscape have led to the development of varied cultures and adaptive patterns. Added to these complexities, environmental problems are also compounded due to political instability leading to policy inconsistency that often influence trading with and transit through India—Nepal’s immediate and influential neighbor. Recently, Nepal has become a place of interest for both China with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the United States of America (USA) with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Politicians are weighing their ideological debates whether these two projects are good for the sustainable development of Nepal. Political Changes Climatic and topographic variations aside, three influential politico ideological phases that Nepal recently went through have created unstable political regimes hindering the country’s economic development. First, each major political transformation concerned with Nepal has been made under India’s influences; for example, the agreements between Rana and Monarch in 1951 to end the 104 years autocratic regime and the 12-point agreements between the Maoists and seven mainstream parliamentary parties in 2006 to conclude the decade-long Maoist armed conflict (1996–2006), all were done through the mediation of India. Though the promulgation of the new constitution in 2015 through the Constituent Assembly was seen as the culmination of the seven decade-long political struggle in Nepal history, Nepali politics could not remain uninfluenced by Indian policies including the carving of Nepal into seven federal units. Second, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Nepal, B. P. Koirala’s stand in 1960 to make each decision independently without consultation with India including the diversification of Nepal’s diplomatic relations, such as recognizing the state of Israel, establishment of diplomatic relations with India’s rival, Pakistan, and strengthening Nepal’s relationships with China at a time when the Sino-India war was in the offing, which, eventually occurred in 1962 which made India unhappy. With the clandestine support of India, King Mahendra dismissed the democratically elected Koirala government before it completed 1 and half years of its 5-year tenure. As India took B. P. Koirala’s foreign policies as the beginning of the erosion of India’s traditional foothold at her doorstep, this Indian view facilitated King Mahendra’s action of dismissing Koirala’s government. King Mahendra always saw Koirala as an arch rival to his direct monarchial rule. In one-on-one interviews during this research with some politicians who worked closely with King Mahendra expressed that actually the king knew Koirala’s patriotic intentions, but intermediaries and King Mahendra’s ambitious attitudes created rift between these two leaders. The differences between King Mahendra and Prime Minister Koirala created never-ending political instability that offered room to India to repeatedly interfere in Nepal’s internal matters. Third, King Mahendra (1955–1972) played off India and China’s cards to advance and accomplish his ambitions. Each time he narrated his actions against the elected government as necessary steps to strengthen his version of national unity and his nationalistic position. Using his version of nationalism, King Mahendra also clandestinely helped Nepal Communist parties to grow to counter and suppress the Nepali Congress Party. King Mahendra’s coteries blamed Koirala being close to India because of B. P. Koirala’s involvement in the Indian Independence Movement and his friendship and long association with many Indian political leaders and parties. Because of these three major events and the lack of a charismatic and visionary political leader to wisely handle Nepal’s complex and fragile geopolitics, Nepal’s every political change has yielded space to outsiders. The country has continued to suffer from external meddling and undue interference in internal affairs. Today, over 50,000 international/non-governmental organizations (I/NGOs) are actively involved in Nepal’s so-called development. These I/NGOs are involved not only in development but also in various nefarious activities including religious proselytization, weakening the social fabric of unique unity in diversity, which has been Nepal’s national strength. Overtly or covertly, several I/NGOs are creating fissures among harmoniously instituted Nepali communities. Climate change on one hand and cultural and political upheavals on the other have made Nepal a political and sociocultural laboratory for many international organizations and donor agencies in the names of implementing various Bikash Mantras (development formulae) including interfering with the country’s structural adjustment policies (SAPs) since the late 1980s. These Bikash Mantras (and SAPS) have led to the privatization of many industries with the national implementation of neoliberal economic agendas since the 1990s. As a result, Nepal has been overburdened beyond her absorbing capacities, with many industries being closed and the income gaps between rich and poor widening. Even the Marxist and Leninist believers with their socialistic agendas have been supportive of the implementation of neoliberal agendas without questioning their capitalistic faults since they undermine their political stances of “equity and social justice.” These controversial ideological infusions in the central governance of Nepal—namely, socialism and privatization—have further widened the gaps between rich and poor compelling 1200–1500 working age people to leave the country each day for work elsewhere. Despite their Marxist roots and affirmed ideology of peoples’ equity and social justice, many of these popular advocates of socialistic political ideologies have been all too ready to join Nepali capitalists in terms of hoarding personal resources and operating profitable businesses such as private educational institutions, hospitals, industries, and many “so-called social service centers.” Not surprisingly, then, in 2016, Nepal ranked 121/180 in its national “corruption index.” Though this figure is a reduction from 154/180 in 2011, yet, it is still high for a South Asian nation. The Transparency International 2018 report lists Nepal among the most corrupt countries ranking 124 out of 180 (Transparency.Org. 2018). This chapter presents a short description of contemporary environmental conditions of Nepal in comparison with the rest of its South Asian neighbors and presents a summary of how South Asian politics and climate changes have had an impact on Nepal’s development. Then it succinctly presents how the ongoing political developments have been influencing Nepal’s overall development in the age of global climate change. It also presents a synoptic overview of each chapter that follows and adds a concluding summary section to each chapter.