Climate crisis: rich nations undermining work to help poor countries, research suggests

Sultan Al Jaber, president-designate of Cop28, is also head of UAE’s national oil company, Adnoc. Photograph: John MacDougall/AP

Rich nations are undermining work to protect poor and vulnerable countries from the impacts of the climate crisis, by providing loans instead of grants, siphoning off money from other aid projects or mislabelling cash, new research suggests.

Only $11.5bn (£9.2bn) of climate finance from rich countries in 2020 was devoted to helping poor countries adapt to extreme weather, despite increasing incidences of climate-related disaster, according to a report from the charity Oxfam.