Urgent climate finance pleas at COP31 face a non-urgent response

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ANTALYA, Turkey, Nov 13 - Urgent pleas for cash from poor nations most exposed to the kind of climate-related disasters that have marked this year risk meeting a sluggish response…

ANTALYA, Turkey, Nov 13 - Urgent pleas for cash from poor nations most exposed to the kind of climate-related disasters that have marked this year risk meeting a sluggish response at Turkey's COP31 talks as Western governments put national security and living costs first.

Two years ago, rich countries agreed at UN climate talks they would triple climate funding for poorer countries to $300 billion per year by 2035 versus a previous 2020 target. Also by 2035, financing from all public and private sources combined would be $1.3 trillion annually.

Since then, climate action has slipped down the political agenda for Western governments as US President Donald Trump has withdrawn international funding, while wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have added to inflationary pressures and the need to spend on security.

Vulnerable small island nations say the cash they need to repair damage and to guard against future climate-related crises is again arriving too slowly and their own budgets have shrunk.

"Like many small island developing states, we remain in a perpetual climate disaster recovery mode," Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale told the conference. "We cannot build resilience while our fiscal space erodes."

Even when money is available, technical hurdles set by lenders can stretch the administrative capacity of small states.

For many developed nations, facing international and domestic unrest as citizens protest against the rising cost of living, their focus has narrowed.

Britain, which has sought to be a leader in addressing climate change, said in July savings made from switching some climate finance contributions from grants to loans would be used to help fund a cap on domestic bus fares.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated in April that world military expenditure reached $2.89 trillion in 2025, up 2.9% in real terms from 2024.

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