Pacific Island leaders say rich countries are not doing enough to control climate change

By JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — Pacific Island leaders have criticized 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. Leaders and representatives from Pacific Island nations demanded at a U.N. climate change conference in Bangkok that the world make more effort to put aside differences in combating the environmental impact, especially as their small countries emerge from the economic devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prime Minister Mark Brown of the Cook Islands says he will give that message when he represents his South Pacific nation at a summit this week of the Group of Seven industrialized nations in Japan.