NEW YORK — Leaders of developing countries threatened by climate change told rich nations at the United Nations General Assembly that they are falling far short of promises to fund measures to combat rising sea levels, droughts and deforestation. “It is past time for the rich world to meet its obligations and get money to where it’s needed most,” Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine told the assembly last week. “We’ve heard the promises — but promises don’t reclaim land in atoll nations like mine.” Wealthy countries have struggled to meet climate finance commitments. Their funding reached $100 billion a year, an amount agreed upon in 2009, two years late in 2022. At a U.N. climate summit last year, leaders agreed to provide developing countries $300 billion a year by 2035. Many developing countries blasted that sum as far too small to meet the need. Experts have estimated that developing countries need at least $1 trillion annually by the end of the decade.
Leaders of developing countries say rich nations must provide resources to cope with climate change, a crisis they created.
Since the Industrial Revolution, the U.S. has been the largest cumulative emitter of greenhouse gases, the primary cause of climate change, according to an analysis by Our World in Data.
“Those who shoulder the blame must foot the bill,” said Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka last week during the week-long leaders session.
In President Donald Trump’s second term, the U.S. withdrew for a second time from the Paris agreement and halted most climate finance commitments. Under his predecessor, Joe Biden, the U.S. provided about $11 billion a year or about 8% of global climate finance, according to an analysis by Carbon Brief. During his address to the General Assembly last week, Trump dismissed climate change as “the greatest con job” in the world. Last year was the hottest year on record as global temperatures exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era for the first time, bringing the world closer to breaching the pledge governments made in the Paris pact.