People use makeshift rafts on a waterlogged street in Hyderabad, Pakistan [Akram Shahid/AFP]

United Nations, October 9 (RHC)-- The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution for better access to international financing to help developing nations mitigate and adapt to increasingly calamitous climate change.

Rich countries’ unkept promise to provide $100 billion a year in climate change financing starting in 2020 is a recurring sticking point in international talks on the climate emergency.  So is a call from developing countries for a fund specifically designed to compensate for their “loss and damage” already suffered because of global warming largely caused by industrialised nations.

In a speech to the General Assembly, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said UN climate talks known as COP27 opening in Egypt in November “must be the place for serious action on loss and damage”.  “COP27 must be the place for clarity on vital funding for adaptation and resilience,” Guterres said.

At last year’s COP26 conference in Glasgow, developed nations promised to double climate adaptation support to $40 billion a year by 2025. However, $300 billion a year will be needed by developing countries for adaptation by 2030, according to the United nations.

Developing countries are the least responsible for climate change but the ones who suffer the most because of it.