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Baku, Azerbaijan – In a critical call to action, Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s ecology minister and president-designate of the upcoming climate negotiations, urged world leaders on Wednesday to prioritize a new financial aid package for impoverished and disaster-affected nations during the United Nations talks this fall. Babayev emphasized the urgency, stating, “Time lost is lives, livelihoods, and the planet lost.”

The plea comes as Simon Stiell, the United Nations’ top climate official, highlighted the dire consequences of unchecked climate change from his devastated hometown of Carriacou, Grenada. In a poignant video from the hurricane-ravaged island, Stiell described the destruction caused by the record-breaking storm Beryl, which obliterated or severely damaged 98% of homes on the island.

“Beryl is yet more painful proof,” said Stiell, executive secretary of the UN’s climate agency, standing amidst the ruins of a neighbor’s house. “Every year, fossil fuel-driven climate costs are an economic wrecking ball hitting billions of households and small businesses. If governments everywhere don’t step up, every economy and 8 billion people will face this blunt-force trauma head-on on a continuous basis.”

Stiell noted the alarming impacts of global warming, citing a four-figure death toll from heat in India, over 1,000 deaths during the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, and millions left without power during a brutal heat wave in Texas. He called global warming a national security threat to every country, referencing a scientific study predicting a yearly $38 trillion economic hit from climate change. This economic burden, he warned, traps poorer countries in debt, hindering their ability to provide essential services like education and healthcare.

Babayev’s letter to world leaders underscored the critical need for a new international financial aid goal, building on the annual $100 billion pledge made by wealthy nations in 2009 to assist poorer countries in transitioning to less carbon-intensive economies. While this goal was finally reached earlier this year, Babayev stressed the necessity of improving upon it, noting that preliminary meetings in Germany this June failed to achieve the “necessary progress.”

In a statement, Babayev highlighted Azerbaijan’s potential role in facilitating dialogue between rich and poor nations but emphasized the urgency of collective action. “We all need to walk across it. In fact, we need to start running,” he said.

To accelerate progress, Babayev has invited leading climate negotiators to an informal retreat in Azerbaijan later this month. Additionally, veteran negotiators from Denmark and Egypt have been enlisted to help chart the path toward a new financial aid goal.

Babayev also pointed to the importance of operationalizing the “loss and damage” fund, established in 2022 and enacted in 2023. This fund aims to provide reparations from wealthy nations that contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions to less developed nations like Grenada, which suffer disproportionately from climate-related disasters.

“The only way out of this is together,” Stiell declared from Carriacou. “What the climate crisis did to my grandmother’s house must not become humanity’s new normal. We can still prevent that.”

The November climate talks in Baku are poised to be a decisive moment for global climate action, with financial aid and international cooperation at the forefront of the agenda.

Kathmandu — In response to the recent extreme climate events in South Asia, Marta Schaaf, Programme Director for Climate, Economic Social Justice, and Corporate Accountability at Amnesty International, has highlighted the urgent need for collective human rights-consistent climate action. Schaaf’s statement underscores the increasing frequency of devastating floods and intense heatwaves, which she attributes to human-caused climate change.

“The devastating floods in South Asia, following a period of intense heatwave, are yet another reminder of the failure to ensure a collective human rights-consistent climate action,” said Schaaf. “Human-caused climate change has made extreme climate events much more likely, aggravating the continuum of extreme heat and flooding that we have witnessed with increasing frequency in recent years.”

The recent climate disasters have severely affected millions across South Asia. In India, over 80 people have lost their lives in Assam since mid-May, with 2.4 million people impacted and 2,580 villages still submerged. Nepal has reported around 91 deaths in the past four weeks due to heavy rains and landslides. In Bangladesh, floods have caused eight deaths and displaced tens of thousands, with approximately 40,000 people seeking refuge in government shelters. Pakistan, too, has witnessed significant evacuations in northern regions due to flooding from melting glaciers, while other areas suffer under extreme heat. New Delhi recorded its highest-ever temperatures this summer, though heat-related deaths are not systematically tracked.

Schaaf emphasized the disproportionate impact of these climate events on vulnerable and marginalized communities, who have contributed minimally to greenhouse gas emissions yet bear the brunt of government inaction on climate change. “The large economic disparities in the South Asia region have only magnified the sufferings of the most vulnerable and marginalized communities, with a large death toll and displacement figure year on year,” she stated. “These communities contributed almost nothing to greenhouse gas emissions, yet they are paying for government inaction on climate with their livelihoods and all too often – their lives.”

Calling for a clear roadmap for climate justice, Schaaf asserted that there can be no climate justice without human rights. She urged countries to phase out their dependence on fossil fuels and called on high-income historic emitters, G20 members, and fossil fuel-producing states to commit to climate finance. This funding is essential to help developing countries adapt to climate change, transition to renewable energy, and compensate communities for inevitable loss and damage.

“It is simple – countries must phase out their dependence on fossil fuels,” Schaaf declared. “The time is now.”

As South Asia grapples with the aftermath of these severe climate events, Amnesty International’s call for immediate and just climate action highlights the pressing need for global cooperation and commitment to human rights-centric climate policies.