The recent report from Action Aid International on climate change tells us something nations like Bangladesh have long tried to bring to attention: When it comes to climate justice, richer nations offer only talk and nothing more.
To say the numbers are staggering would be an incredible understatement; as per the studies from the report, the climate debt that rich polluting countries are liable to pay low- and lower-middle income countries is $107 trillion. Indeed, wealthy nations owe just Bangladesh $5.8tn -- money that would immediately solve most if not all of our economic worries and all of our external debts.
With climate change continuing to be the single greatest existential threat to humanity in the 21st century, it is well worth repeating, over and over again, that this threat has been, from the very beginning, disproportionate and unfair.
Richer nations from the developed world, those who historically have been and continue to be the reason for the climate crisis we find ourselves in, are hardly affected while poor nations from the Global South such as Bangladesh are the ones who continue to bear the brunt of the adverse effects.
In all of this, all we hear from richer nations is the constant talk about climate justice, about being together, and about the need to collectively combat climate change. The reality, ever since climate justice became a topic of discussion, and even after the Paris Agreement in 2016 when richer nations committed to providing financial support for climate change, has mostly been all talk and no action from the developed world.
History tells us of all the ways nations from the Global North looted from those of the Global South, and it is truly unfortunate to see that, even in 2025, nations such as ours are being deprived of literally trillions of dollars. As things stand, there is no climate justice, and until the developed world holds up its end of the deal, this shall continue to be the reality.