Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe said governments were quick to divert billions of dollars to the war in Ukraine but slow to spend serious money on climate change.
“Double standards are unacceptable,” he said.
Scores of other heads of state and government spoke on Monday and Tuesday but many of the world’s biggest polluters – including the US, China and India – have yet to take the podium.
Biden will not arrive until Friday – after Tuesday’s midterm elections in the US.
Pointing to the “lack of” capacity as the “biggest obstacle” to the implementation of climate action plans, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday proposed setting up an International Climate Change University in Sri Lanka, with an ancillary institution in the Maldives.
As island nations, Sri Lanka and the Maldives are particularly vulnerable to the adverse impact of climate change, experts have repeatedly warned. “This seat of learning can be a trans-disciplinary global centre for green and blue studies – for scientists, environmentalists, researchers, policymakers, development practitioners, and students the world over,” Mr Wickremesinghe said, addressing the COP-27 Climate Change Conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
The Sri Lankan leader blamed the “unbridled industrialisation of developed countries” as the root cause of climate change, leaving the poor to suffer the consequences. Appealing on behalf of the Global South, he said poor countries were facing “a double jeopardy” – struggling to develop economically while fighting to protect the living standards of their people. “It is therefore imperative that the developed countries deliver on their pledge in Glasgow – by doubling their funding. Developing countries who are the worst affected by the rise in emissions from the industrialised world, need to be compensated for loss and damage.”