PACIFIC Island leaders have criticised rich countries for not doing enough to control climate change despite being responsible for much of the problem, and for profiting from loans provided to vulnerable nations to mitigate the effects.

At a UN climate change conference on Monday in Bangkok, leaders and representatives from Pacific Island nations demanded that the world make more effort to put aside differences in combating the environmental impact, especially as their countries emerge from the economic devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Prime Minister Mark Brown of the Cook Islands said the finance model for combating climate change, giving out loans to reduce the impact, is “not the way to go” for countries in his region with such small populations that produce “inconsequential amounts of carbon emissions” but suffer the most from the effects.

He encouraged a shift towards grants or interest-free loans to help ease the financial burden on poorer countries.

“All we’re doing is adding debt to countries that have come out of Covid with increased debt, and to me it is actually quite offensive that we would be required to borrow money to build resilience, and to borrow from the very countries that are causing climate change,” he told The Associated Press.

Mr Brown said that his country lost an estimated 41 per cent of its GDP because of the pandemic, “a loss of a decade’s worth of prosperity.”

He said that he will give this message to leaders when he joins the Group of Seven summit in Japan, where he hopes to be able to speak on a more equal footing to the leaders than as “a grateful recipient” to “benevolent donors.”

Palau President Surangel S Whipps agreed that financing opportunities are “few and difficult,” and criticised wealthy countries for failing to commit to provide the financial help they had promised, which he said represents only a tiny portion of their prioritised expenditures such as the military.

“We didn’t cause the problem, but now they’re going to make money off of us by giving us a loan so we can pay back with interest,” he said.

“So now you have to adapt, but we’ll give you money and make money off of you by giving you that money to adapt. That doesn’t make sense.”

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Mr Brown said efforts to tackle climate change and build resilience to its impact, such as better infrastructure and greater water and food security, require lots of money, especially for island nations with small populations.

He said $1.2 billion (£958 million) a year for the region to spend on climate adaptation and mitigation measures would be “a starter.”

“The fact remains that the underlying solution to assist countries that are facing the impacts of climate change is to build resilience, and building resilience takes money,” he said.