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An annual global climate conference is underway in Azerbaijan. The priority this year is money to help the places hit hardest by climate change. NPR's Michael Copley reports.
MICHAEL COPLEY, BYLINE: People all over the world face catastrophic threats from climate change, but the president of this year's United Nations meeting, Mukhtar Babayev, put the spotlight on developing countries.
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MUKHTAR BABAYEV: Whether you see them or not, people are suffering in the shadows. They are dying in the dark, and they need more than compassion.
COPLEY: Developing nations don't bear much responsibility for the climate pollution that's raising global temperatures, but they're getting hit with some of the worst impacts, like more extreme heat waves and flooding from torrential rain. So wealthy countries that built their economies using fossil fuels promised more than a decade ago to help their poorer neighbors pay to cut climate pollution and prepare for weather risks. Leaders at this year's climate talks are under pressure to come up with a new funding target that's a lot more ambitious than the last one, which was set at $100 billion a year.
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BABAYEV: These numbers may sound big, but they are nothing compared to cost of inaction.
COPLEY: But it's not clear where the money will come from. The U.N. said recently that developing countries need around $215 billion every year in this decade alone to adapt to climate impacts. That doesn't count the cost of cutting climate pollution or compensating developing countries for losses and damage they're already suffering. Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, called for wealthier nations to provide grants, not loans, so that climate initiatives don't add more debt in poorer countries.
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PRIME MINISTER GASTON BROWNE: Wealthy polluting countries are seeking to shift responsibility onto elusive private capital instead of ensuring decisive government action to reduce and disincentivize emissions.
COPLEY: Wealthy governments say they can't pay for global climate efforts on their own and that world leaders need to find ways to encourage more investment from the private sector. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said countries could raise more money by taxing polluting industries, like shipping, aviation and fossil-fuel production. And he said changes in organizations like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund could help funnel more private investment to developing countries.
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ANTONIO GUTERRES: The resources available may seem insufficient, but they can be multiplied with a meaningful change in how the multilateral system works. Big sums require big change.
COPLEY: Dozens of developing countries are calling for the new funding target to be set at more than a trillion dollars a year. That's 10 times more than the previous commitment, which wealthy countries were slow to deliver in the first place.
Michael Copley, NPR News.
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