Boris Johnson’s government must take the lead in giving poor countries access to the finance they need to tackle the climate crisis, to make vital climate talks a success, the UN’s development chief has said. The UK will need the support of more than 130 developing countries to make a success of the Cop26 UN climate summit, to be hosted in Glasgow this November. Cop26 comes at a crucial time, as developing countries face key decisions on how to help their economies recover from the Covid crisis. Steiner said: “It sends a very mixed signal, and makes developing countries very concerned. The World Bank recently estimated that 2.5% of this year’s debt service payments for poor countries, amounting to about $28bn, would be enough to vaccinate 2 billion people in the poor world.

Source: The Guardian March 29, 2021 09:00 UTC