Leaders of countries flooded or parched due to climate change are pleading at the COP27 summit for an urgent financial lifeline from richer nations.
“We will not give up… the alternative consigns us to a watery grave,” Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davies said.
Countries are meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt to discuss next steps in curbing climate change.
Front line nations want a special compensation fund for the climate impacts they cannot recover from.
“I’m not here to ask any of you to love the people of my country with the same passion as I do,” Mr Davies told leaders.
“I’m asking what is it worth to you to have millions of climate refugees to turn into tens of millions, putting pressure on political and economic systems around the world,” he said.
As a low-lying nation, the Bahamas is particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise and storm damage.
He urged nations to “get real”, saying that acting on climate change is in everyone’s self-interest.
Nations very vulnerable to climate change are united in their calls at the summit for richer countries to pay the bill for the damage caused by sea level rise, drought and extreme storms.
They say developed nations owe this money because they became rich off decades of using fossil fuels.
By contrast many less developed countries, particularly the small island nations most at risk, have contributed virtually nothing to total emissions.
Richer nations have historically avoided the question of compensation or reparations, but the issue – referred to as “loss and damage” – was put on the COP agenda this year for the first time since the summits began 30 years ago.
The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), a group of low-lying countries, suggested that fossil fuel companies “could carry a portion of their burden” by paying a tax on profits.
“We all know they make extortionate profits,” Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne told journalists at COP.
Countries including China and India should help contribute to the fund, he said, but added that AOSIS will not push for retrospective cash.
The Pacific island nations of Tuvalu and Vanuatu called for a treaty to end the use of fossil fuels.