: UN leader Antonio Guterres on Saturday slammed the world’s rich countries and energy giants for throttling poor nations with “predatory” interest rates and crippling fuel prices.
Afghanistan and Myanmar, two of the poorest countries, are not present at the meeting in Doha because their governments are not recognised by UN members.At the summit opening, Guterres hit out straight away at the way poor nations are treated by the more powerful. “Combatting climate catastrophe that you did nothing to cause is challenging when the cost of capital is sky-high” and the financial help received “is a drop in the bucket”, said Guterres.
“Deprived of liquidity, many of you are locked out of capital markets by predatory interest rates,“ the UN leader said. Richer countries have also vowed, but failed, to produce hundreds of billions of dollars to help poorer states to help battle climate change. Guterres said the UN would “keep pushing for the resources already promised”.