Climate Summit Hears Testimonies from Countries Suffering from Harms and Destruction Linked to Global Warming

AP, BELEM (BRAZIL), NOVEMBER 8, 2025: Officials from countries most vulnerable to global warming delivered powerful accounts of life on the front lines of a warming planet on Friday, as world leaders gathered on the edge of the Amazon rainforest for the annual United Nations climate talks.

Ahead of Monday's official kickoff, officials sought to build support for initiatives to protect forests and streamline carbon markets, which aim to reduce the emissions driving global warming. However, the meetings also took time to hear impassioned testimony about the severe harms climate change is already causing around the world.

Haitian diplomat Smith Augustin, whose country was devastated by Hurricane Melissa, appealed to wealthier nations—who contribute the most to global emissions—to support Haiti in preparing for future, larger storms. "The hurricanes and the heavy rain devastated my country,” Augustin said. “Developing countries, especially small island states, are the least responsible for climate change.”

At last year's summit, developed countries pledged $300 billion to help poorer nations cope with climate shocks, but much of the money has yet to be distributed.

Kithure Kindiki, Kenya’s Vice President, shared that rescuers in his country were still searching for dozens of people missing after a deadly landslide caused by torrential rains that sent muddy water crashing into villages last week. "A previously once-in-a-century cycle of extreme droughts alternating with devastating floods continues to wipe out lives," Kindiki said. "This has now become common."

Kalani Kaneko, Foreign Minister of the Pacific Island nation of the Marshall Islands, said his country is already living through a climate change nightmare. “All we have to do is look out our front doors to witness the impact of climate change,” Kaneko stated. “Now the sea rises, the coral dies, and the fish stock leaves our shores for cooler waters.”

Officials warned that it has become nearly impossible to keep global warming below the key Paris Agreement benchmark of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Last year was the hottest year on record, and scientists argue that every fraction of a degree of atmospheric heating unleashes longer droughts, deadlier heatwaves, and more intense storms.

Hurricane Melissa has made the reality of this painfully clear, said Racquel Moses, director of the Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator, a coalition investing in climate resilience. “It will be much, much harder to ignore the Caribbean, to talk around the issues that are absolutely real, because we just had this experience,” Moses said. “The very way that we live is dependent on these negotiations going according to plan.”

World leaders who were not present at the summit on Friday were perhaps as significant as those who were. U.S. President Donald Trump, who calls climate change a hoax and prioritizes fossil fuels, boycotted the summit, leaving a gap that many other world powers sought to fill. Although China’s leader, Xi Jinping, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also skipped the conference, the officials sent in their place used the podium to revive enthusiasm about the global energy transition and assure the gathering that multilateralism was not dead, despite the U.S. stance.

Others criticized the imbalance, with Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, the Chairman of the African Union Commission, questioning how developing nations could be expected to decarbonize at a time when financial assistance for poor countries is faltering, and when the U.S.—the world’s biggest oil producer—benefits from heightened demand for hydrocarbons. “We do not ask for charity, but for climate justice,” Youssouf said.

Maina Vakafua Talia, the environmental minister of the island nation of Tuvalu, directly addressed President Trump over the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. "Mr. President, this is a shameful disregard for the rest of the world,” he said.

The White House responded, stating that Trump “will not jeopardize our country’s economic and national security to pursue vague climate goals that are killing other countries.”