Developed world must step up on climate finance

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has every right to voice her frustration over developed countries failing to fulfil their commitments on issues relating to climate change. Despite contributing very little to global warming, Bangladesh and other climate-vulnerable nations are experiencing firsthand the catastrophic impacts in the form of rising seas, deadlier storms, drought, and other extreme weather events.

It is a cruel injustice that the impoverished nations least responsible for climate change are being forced to pay the highest price. Lest we forget, the climate crisis as we know it today has been caused primarily by greenhouse gas emissions from wealthy countries.

The hard truth is that without dramatic emissions cuts, climate disasters will continue to intensify in the coming years. However, mitigation efforts no longer are enough -- developed countries have made a promise to pay for the global crisis they have brought upon and it is about time they live up to their promises to provide adequate climate finance to help vulnerable nations adapt and rebuild.

For too long, the richest polluting nations have failed to mobilize the funds pledged to assist countries like Bangladesh. While we have created our own Climate Trust Fund to save our people, it should never have come to that. The paltry amount delivered so far is an insult to nations like us. Wealthy countries grew prosperous by burning fossil fuels -- which they continue to do -- and they owe it to the developing world to assist them.

We are told that climate change is a global crisis that affects everybody, but the reality is that it disproportionately affects nations such as ours. Developed nations must thus ramp up climate finance and technology transfers to countries being affected by a crisis that is not of their making. The time to act is now.