Development
Climate finance and loss and damage at UNGA 81
Raised by 68 of 223 speakers. Read verbatim UN transcript quotes and select a time to hear the speech.
Speeches that raised climate finance and loss and damage
Dominica · Day 1Sylvanie BurtonIt is a call for us to build on that progress, strengthen our cooperation, and deliver the meaningful change that our people expect from us.
A fundamental question that one must ask is, can the international system still deliver?
For Dominica, this is not an abstract question.
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Tuvalu · Day 4Feleti TeoNamely, firstly, it affirms the continuity of statehood and sovereignty despite sea level rise.
Secondly, it safeguards the permanence of maritime zones and rights established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Thirdly, it recognizes and protects the rights, dignity, culture, identity, and heritage of affected people.
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Fiji · Day 3Ratu Naiqama Tawakecolati LalabalavuWe must take it further still through connectivity, food and energy security, and Pacific-led financing, such as something the Pacific has built.
The Pacific Resilience Facility is the first climate and disaster financing facility owned, governed, and hosted by the states it serves.
Its treaty entered into force in May.
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Barbados · Day 3Mia Amor MottleyThe climate vulnerable countries need to mobilize approximately $490 billion each year by 2030.
And yet, the current inflows are roughly $90 billion.
As the young people in Barbados would say, the math simply ain't mathing.
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Nepal · Day 3Balendra ShahAfter at least 1,400 deaths and over 6,000 people still missing, a rapid assessment pegged physical recovery needs at about 10% of GDP.
As in rebuilding after a post-disaster like 2015 Gorkha earthquake, we count on your solidarity and support.
But we must also understand why this disaster matters beyond Nepal.
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Solomon Islands · Day 4Matthew Cooper WaleMajor emitters must make deep emission cuts and transition away from fossil fuels.
Climate finance, including support for loss and damage, must be grant-based and channeled through our national budget systems.
Project-based financing of climate action is unsustainable and out of step with the scale of a crisis we did the least to cause.
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Saint Lucia · Day 4Philip J. PierreIt is a direct threat to national security, economic stability, food and water security, and human survival.
While the world focuses on headline grabbing events like monster hurricanes, melting glaciers, and tidal waves, climate change is affecting Saint Lucia daily in small but significant ways, such as the unusual bouts of drought in the rainy season, unprecedented floods in the dry season, and stifling of our beaches and coastlines by sargassum.
Our people contribute little to these global emissions, Yet these events constantly set back our people's development and and livelihoods and demand that we find the resources to reverse the damage.
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Saint Kitts and Nevis · Day 4Geoffrey HanleyStates must reduce emissions, strengthen adaptation, honor climate finance responsibilities, and cooperate with countries bearing consequences vastly disproportionate to their contribution to this crisis.
Mister President, those contributions, lease, must not pay the greatest price.
Our oceans must also move from promises to protection.
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Zambia · Day 5Mulambo Hamakuni HaimbeOur people continue to experience the devastating effects of droughts, floods, and changing weather patterns with significant impact on agriculture, food security, water availability, energy generation, and livelihoods.
The effects of activities transcend our borders, and yet our people and the coming generations may pay a heavy price.
Zambia recognizes that countries such as ours cannot finance the climate transition alone, nor should they.
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Secretary-General of the United Nations · Day 1António GuterresFor decades, Big Oil has treated the atmosphere as an open sewer and cashed in on the consequences.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, five major Western oil companies have pocketed nearly half a trillion dollars in profits.
Compare that with just $34 billion in international public adaptation finance for developing countries in the latest year reported.
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Seychelles · Day 1Mathew Antonio Patrick HerminieIt is unreasonable to expect nations safeguarding vast oceanic domains with modest budgets to meet standards set by heavily resourced states without providing them the tools to do so.
Resilience without resources is not resilience.
It is merely survival.
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United Republic of Tanzania · Day 1Deogratius NdejembiThese ambitions may not be realized if the international financial architecture is not made to work for development.
Currently, when developing countries are accelerating progress, they are restricted by high borrowing costs, rising debt burdens, and limited access to affordable long-term financing.
Tanzania stresses that improvements must be made to ensure expansion of concessional financing, mobilization of private investment, improved access to development and climate finance, and giving developing countries a stronger voice in the global financial decision-making.
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Democratic Republic of the Congo · Day 2Judith Suminwa TulukaThose who contribute least to global warming often suffer the heaviest consequences.
This paradox is all the more striking given that some of these countries are also some of the main custodians of the natural assets upon which our common future depends.
The DRC is one of these custodians.
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Marshall Islands · Day 4Hilda HeineAdapting is costly and takes time, even as we've seen schools destroyed by rising seas, saltwater poisoning our wells, and disease outbreaks linked to environmental change.
This injustice must be addressed.
Our communities deserve restitution.
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Bahamas (the) · Day 4Philip Edward DavisLast year, the International Court of Justice made clear that the law is also certain.
That injustice is certain too.
The people who bear least responsibility are asked to adapt first, pay more, and recover from disasters they did not cause.
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Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Day 4Godwin Fridayand set a country back.
Small states cannot continue borrowing merely to replace what climate-related disasters repeatedly destroy.
We cannot continue to walk up the down escalator pretending it is development.
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Tonga · Day 4Lord FakafanuaThe Pacific loses an estimated of $500 million every year due to natural disasters such as cyclones, flooding, Early warning systems give communities time to prepare and reduce these losses.
That may be a modest sum in global terms, but for Pacific nations, it is a heavy toll on our countries and our people.
And yet the financing to prevent such losses still falls short.
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Samoa · Day 4Mulipola Anarosa Ale MoliooAs the ICJ advisory opinion puts it, climate change is not merely an environmental concern, but an existential problem of planetary proportion that require urgent global action.
The United Nations General Assembly welcome the unanimous ICJ advisory opinion and affirm its importance as an authoritative contribution to the clarification of existing international law.
Climate finance is the bridge between ambition and action.
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Djibouti · Day 5Abdoulkader Houssein OmarWe must therefore accelerate the implementation of the Paris Agreement and strengthen our adaptation and resilience efforts, including through resilient coastal infrastructure, better protection for marine and coastal ecosystems, early warning systems, and simplified, predictable, and equitable access to climate finance.
For Djibouti, climate action must not be separated from development.
On the contrary, it must help to transform our economies.
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Malawi · Day 6George Chapatula ChapondaWe call for the full and effective operationalization and capitalization of the loss and damage fund.
Major historical and current emitters must honor their climate finance commitments by providing accessible, predictable, grant-based and highly concessionable financing, rather than relying on debt-creating instruments that further burden vulnerable countries already struggling to cope with the consequences of a crisis they did little to cause.
Mr. President, Malawi therefore calls for enhanced, predictable and easily accessible climate finance with greater emphasis on adaptation and disaster risk reduction.
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Vanuatu · Day 6Odo TeviTherefore, when we speak about climate finance, development finance, disaster resilience, and sustainable development, we are not asking merely for charity.
That partnership must include predictable and accessible finance for adaptation and for addressing loss and damage.
They will trust it when climate finance reaches vulnerable communities.
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Türkiye · Day 1Recep Tayyip ErdoğanDistinguished members, We all derive our livelihood and the source of our life from nature.
But our world stands on the threshold of serious environmental and climate-related threats.
Air, water and soil, and also many living species, are being affected by climate change.
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Sierra Leone · Day 1Julius Maada BioDeveloping nations must help shape the standards that will govern technologies affecting their people.
Climate change presents the same moral question in harsher form.
Who benefits?
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Palau · Day 2Surangel WhippsWe need financing that reaches communities without adding debt, adaptation finance that is accessible to countries already bearing the cost of the problems they did not create, and full support of the loss and damage and the special circumstances of SIDS.
This means grant-based and concessional finance, grid readiness and storage, productive energy use, and support that respects our circumstances while enabling delivery at scale.
Those who contributed the least to this climate crisis yet confront the worst threats of rising sea levels must not be burdened with debt simply to purchase a life jacket for their survival.
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Panama · Day 2José Raúl Mulino QuinteroBut this does not mean that we don't have to face strong droughts followed by heavy rain that causes flooding.
This leads us to a reflection that that is there's a lot of support for nations that assume the objective of decarbonization.
But the fact is that we don't benefit from any type of economic aids, despite the fact that we remove more carbon from the world than we produce.
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Namibia · Day 2Netumbo Nandi-NdaitwahAt this point, Namibia reiterate its solidarity with the government and people of Nepal following the recent flood in that country.
Namibia continues to face significant climatic changes as a result of climate change, including recurring droughts, rising temperatures, and growing pressure on agriculture and water resources.
Yet, Namibia contributes less than 0.01% of the global greenhouse gas emission, and it bears disproportionate share of the impact of climate change like other developing countries.
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Madagascar · Day 3Michaël RandrianirinaThis means we need to rebalance access to financing.
Current aid and lending criteria often rely solely on GDP per capita, excluding many vulnerable countries.
The United Nations should therefore take into account the multidimensional vulnerability index so that access to concessional financing reflex climate shocks and external debt burdens.
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Ghana · Day 3John Dramani Mahamagovernments are forced into a tragic choice to service predatory debt or to serve their people.
We demand reform.
We need long-term, affordable, and accessible concessionary financing that enables developing economies to invest in human capital, in industrialization, and climate adaptation.
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Somalia · Day 3Hassan Sheikh MohamudAccording to the United Nations, over 40% of the global population are vulnerable to the destructive effects of the climate change.
And governments in developing countries spend over 10% of their GDP to respond to this.
These painful fiscal trade-offs come at the expense of investment, in the education and health, which should never be the case.
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Nigeria · Day 3Kashim ShettimaWe inhabit the only planet known to sustain human life, and as long as that scientific fact holds, we cannot pretend that we are insulated from conflicts elsewhere, geography offers no exemption from the consequences of a fractured world.
Mr. President, we reject the false choice between development and climate action.
Developing countries must industrialize, eradicate poverty, and expand energy access through low carbon pathways supported by technology transfer, capacity building, and climate finance.
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Netherlands (Kingdom of the) · Day 3Rob JettenThe need to accelerate and scale up our efforts is only too clear.
and that demands our common commitment.
The Netherlands wants to build practical partnerships with other countries, so we are once again making funding available for this purpose.
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Belize · Day 5John BriceñoNew stressors such as the unprecedented influx of sargassum along our coasts have already made responses.
Managing them requires innovation, capable institutions and strategies that are properly financed.
Yet even the best national effort will fail short without coordinated international cooperation.
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Kyrgyzstan · Day 1Sadyr ZhaparovToday, they have largely dried up.
For us, this example must serve as a clear warning.
Taking this opportunity, I officially call upon the United Nations, international financial institutions, and donor countries to support our initiative to establish under the auspice of the organization the special joint trust fund for the preservation of Lake Issyk-Kul.
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Angola · Day 1João Manuel Gonçalves LourençoThese challenges are inherently complex and further exacerbated by climate change, which has a severe impact on Africa with severe and prolonged droughts, floods, desertification, food insecurity and population displacement.
This situation clearly illustrates the need to establish predictable, affordable and additional climate financing without further aggravating the debt of developing countries.
Today, peoples and nations have an opportunity to make a qualitative leap in their overall living conditions through fair financing mechanisms for development and tools provided by artificial intelligence in order to improve education, health, agriculture, public service, scientific research and economic productivity.
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Suriname · Day 1Jennifer Geerlings-SimonsHigh forested and low deforestation countries like Suriname should not first have to lose forests before climate finance institutions recognize the value of protecting them.
Conservation costs cannot be borne only by the countries protecting ecosystems whose benefits are shared globally.
So I will continue my plea for just and effective climate finance.
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Morocco · Day 1Nasser BouritaThis effort has extended to the African continent, which suffers from the devastating effects of climate change.
The Royal Initiative to establish three African Climate Commissions for the Congo Basin, the Sahel region, and the African Island States has generated promising momentum to strengthen African climate action and coordination among the states of the continent in addressing these challenges.
However, addressing climate change cannot rely on national effort alone.
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Central African Republic · Day 2Faustin Archange TouaderaThere cannot be lasting security without climate security.
There cannot be climate security without climate justice.
My country will bring three demands to the 31st Conference of the Parties in Antalya, Turkey.
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Mozambique · Day 2Daniel Francisco Chapothat resilience is now an environmental, economic, and food security, social for development issue, and increasingly one of peace and security in all the world.
We therefore reiterate the need to increase funding for adaptation, facilitate access to climate funds, operationalize the loss and damage mechanisms, and invest in early warning systems and resilient infrastructure.
Mozambique remains highly vulnerable to extreme weather events, floods, inundations, cyclones, and we are concerned with the El Nino that might have potential severe impact in the central and southern parts of the country, especially when it comes to drought, food insecurity and livelihood.
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Eswatini · Day 2King Mswati IIITherefore, climate action must be accompanied by climate justice.
We call for stronger international cooperation in climate adaptation, resilience, technology transfer, capacity building and access to predictable, affordable climate finance.
We must protect our environment not only for our present generation, but for those yet unborn.
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Zimbabwe · Day 3Emmerson Dambudzo MnangagwaAs droughts, floods, and declining threaten water, food and energy security, developed countries are called upon to honour their climate finance commitments in line with common but differentiated responsibilities.
Mr. President, Zimbabwe welcomes the recommendations of the Secretary-General's Panel on the Critical Energy Transition Minerals and the country support mechanism.
Critical minerals must become a foundation for inclusive development with value addition and a beneficiation at source, along with development of regional value chains being highly prioritized.
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Liberia · Day 3Joseph Nyuma BoakaiLiberia contributes virtually nothing to global emission, yet our communities face coastal erosion, flooding, and disrupted agricultural cycles.
My country also harbors 42% of the remaining Upper Guinea rainforest, a vital global carbon sink that we maintain on behalf of all humanity.
Climate responsibility must be paired with climate justice.
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Gambia (Republic of The) · Day 3Mohammed JallowNational electricity access is at 90%, universal access targeted by the end of 2026.
We are expanding our solar energy in schools and health facilities, modernizing our electric network, and advancing a 150-megawatt solar park.
We have also adopted our first national disaster mitigation plan.
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Bangladesh · Day 3Tarique RahmanAlthough Bangladesh has contributed little to global carbon emissions, it is bearing the adverse consequences of climate change.
In these circumstances, Bangladesh has chosen the path of building resilience and developing the capacity to survive and adapt.
Therefore, Bangladesh expects stronger global cooperation at COP31 on climate justice, climate finance and adaptation support.
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South Africa · Day 3Ronald Ozzy Lamolaour prosperity, and our hard-won development gains.
In the last year, 2 million people in the Southern African Development Community suffered the combined and debilitating impact of floods, cyclones, wildfires, and disease outbreaks.
Our responses are severely constrained by a climate finance architecture stacked against developing nations.
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Kiribati · Day 4Taneti MaamauBut national action must be matched by international action.
We call for greater ambition, stronger support for adaptation and climate finance that is adequate, predictable, and accessible.
particularly for small island developing states.
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Maldives · Day 4Hussain Mohamed LatheefThat means finance must reach those who need it at the scale, at the speed, and on the terms needed to build resilience.
This is why COP31 in Antalya must be a COP of delivery.
Implementation must be the measure of commitment.
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Lebanon · Day 4Nawaf SalamBut those efforts require a fairer and more equitable international economic order, one that offers them genuine opportunities to advance.
Mr. President, our shared responsibility is equally evident in the face of the profound transformations our world is undergoing.
Climate change threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions.
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Lesotho · Day 4Samuel Ntsokoane MatekaneTo cope with these climate-related challenges, we call upon developed countries to honor their commitments by providing new, adequate, predictable, and accessible climate finance.
Further, we urge developed countries to transfer environmentally sound technology and to strengthen capacity of developing countries to effectively mitigate and adapt to the adverse effects of climate change.
Climate justice demands nothing less.
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North Macedonia · Day 4Hristijan MickoskiThe green transition is essential, but if we make it socially unsustainable, we will lose the political support that is necessary to implement it.
If we make it technologically dependent on a handful of sources, we will create new challenges while addressing old ones.
If we expect poorer countries to move at the same pace without providing them with equal access to capital and technology, we will create injustice instead of a transition.
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Pakistan · Day 4Muhammad Shehbaz SharifMr. President, developing countries are in dire need of timely debt relief, affordable long-term financing, and a stronger voice in global financial institutions.
Development must receive the same urgency as security.
Ladies and gentlemen, Is it not an irony of fate that Pakistan contributes less than 1% of global emissions, yet repeatedly bears the horrific consequences of climate change?
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Haiti · Day 4Alix Didier Fils-AiméThe fact that those who historically contributed the least are among those who are paying the heaviest price, often to the detriment of their own development.
Resources.
devoted to adaptation and resilience need to be commensurate with these challenges.
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Egypt · Day 4Moustafa Kamal MadboulyThere can be no just transition if ambition is dissociated from fair implementation.
Climate action must go hand in hand with development, poverty reduction and job creation.
Adaptation, water security, and food security must receive the priority they deserve, especially in Africa and the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
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Azerbaijan · Day 4Jeyhun Aziz oglu BayramovCOP29 provided a good example of this approach in practice.
As host and presidency, Azerbaijan guided negotiations toward ambitious and balanced outcomes, while working to ensure that all voices were heard.
The conference delivered several historic agreements, including the tripling of the global climate finance goal, full operationalization of Article 6 carbon market mechanisms, and further advancement of arrangements supporting the loss and damage fund for vulnerable communities affected by climate change.
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Mauritius · Day 4Dhananjay RamfulWe look forward to this crucial global issue being addressed by the international community as a matter of urgency.
We also call for enhanced, accessible and predictable climate finance accompanied by comprehensive capacity building and disaster risk management for the most vulnerable.
I also wish to highlight that Mauritius is currently conducting a constitutional review exercise, which will include giving constitutional protection to the rights of nature.
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Chad · Day 4Abdelmadjid Abdelrahim MahamatThe President of the Republic, the Marshal of Chad, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, as guarantor of these institutions, remains determined to maintain peace, to build national cohesion, and to create conditions for sustainable shared development.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, today, countries in the South are feeling the full brunt of climate change.
Lake Chad is one of the most salient symbols of this, Its being vulnerable directly affects the means of subsistence of millions of people.
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Guatemala · Day 4Carlos Ramiro Martínez AlvaradoA country particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change knows that adaptation, risk management and the protection of rural livelihoods require national efforts, but also financing and cooperation commensurate with the needs, capable of building capacity and delivering results.
Defending multilateralism does not mean defending the status quo.
The United Nations must become more effective, representative, transparent and responsive to people.
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Micronesia (Federated States of) · Day 5Aren PalikMr. President and Excellencies, The challenges that impede our sustainable development are increasing.
We must respond by implementing science-based emission reductions, scale up national climate commitments, and accelerate transition to renewable energy.
We demand accessible and predictable adaptation grant financing to support investments in resilient infrastructure.
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Cabo Verde · Day 5Francisco Avelino Vieira de CarvalhoIt is also a question of justice, because those who have contributed the least to this crisis cannot continue to bear some of its most serious consequences.
Science has shown us the way forward.
we must translate this valuable knowledge into decisions and actions.
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Lao People’s Democratic Republic · Day 5Thongsavanh PhomvihaneMr. President, the gap between commitment and delivery on climate change equally tests the credibility of multilateralism.
Although the Lao PDR has contributed only a small share of global greenhouse gas emissions, our people are increasingly affected by floods, droughts, and extreme weather conditions.
The Lao PDR remains fully committed to the Paris Agreement and its nationally determined contributions.
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Philippines · Day 5Ma. Theresa LazaroWe call for the effective implementation of the Paris Agreement, the full operationalization of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, and strengthened implementation of the Sendai Framework.
Put a face to the pursuit of sustainable development With the 2030 agenda less than four years away, only 36% of accessible SDG targets are on track.
Achieving these goals requires renewed political will, stronger partnerships with the private sector, reform of the international financial architecture, and a United Nations development system responsive to the evolving needs and priorities of developing countries.
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Tunisia · Day 5Mohamed Ali NaftiTunisia once again firmly rejects becoming either a transit country or a destination for irregular migrants who are victims of human trafficking networks.
Believing that climate change is a major factor affecting development, security, and stability, Tunisia emphasizes that addressing this challenge requires a genuine climate justice particularly since developing countries bear severe consequences despite their limited historical responsibility for emissions.
Accordingly, countries with the greatest responsibility must fulfill their commitments regarding climate finance while maintaining a clear distinction between climate financing and development financing.
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Gabon · Day 5Marie-Édith Tassyla-Ye-DoumbenenyPresident Restoring trust also involves reforming the international financial architecture, making it more equitable, inclusive and better tailored to today's challenges.
Without this reform, it is becoming almost impossible to mobilize development funding, particularly green finance.
Gabon, a country with extensive forest cover and a low deforestation rate, as well as being a major carbon sink, therefore calls for greater recognition of its contribution to global climate regulation and the ecosystem services that it provides to humanity.
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Jamaica · Day 5Kamina Johnson SmithWe've also submitted our updated nationally determined contribution, completed our long-term strategy for a low-carbon, climate-resilient future, and advanced our national adaptation plan.
But national ambition must be matched by international action.
We must revive 1.5.
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Sao Tome and Principe · Day 5Ilza Maria dos Santos Amado VazSao Tome and Principe, therefore, reaffirms its commitments under the Paris Agreement, its nationally determined contribution, and its national adaptation plan, while stressing that their implementation requires adequate, predictable, and accessible resources.
We also maintain that the vulnerability of small island states should be assessed beyond per capita income, taking into account their specific characteristics and structural constraints.
In this context, we call for the multidimensional vulnerability index to be translated into concrete eligibility criteria for concessional financing.
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Mali · Day 6Abdoulaye DiopWe therefore call on member states to focus on adaptation, on access to climate finance, on indigenous technologies and solutions tailored to Sahelian realities.
We advocate stronger links between efforts to combat desertification, food security initiatives, water management, conflict prevention, and resilience building.
Mr. President, the world is experiencing extraordinary technological advances, including generative artificial intelligence.
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