According to Upstream, a representative of the Ghanaian ministerial team claimed that while developed countries release pledge after pledge to reduce emissions at the COP26 climate summit, the concerns of the less developed countries are not being acknowledged during the closed-door meetings.

According to the representative, “the stated commitments by the G20 and developed nations are very different from what’s happening in the negotiating room.”

“The least emitters are the worst hit” while the “fiscal environment is damaged by mankind itself.”

Less developed countries require financing and assistance to address climate change while also providing electricity to those who do not have it. Delegates at the meeting were told that developing countries require far more than the existing one-fifth of global spending to combat climate change.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a “massive scale-up of climate adaptation in Africa” earlier this year.

“African countries continue to contribute little to global emissions, so deep is the continent’s energy poverty. Yet Africa is on the front lines of dramatic climate impacts, from floods to cyclones and drought that can wipe out decades of development gains overnight,” he said.

South Africa did not sign the COP26 coal pledge, which called for 40 countries to phase out coal, according to South African Environment Minister Barbara Creecy.

Creecy said: “And I think that we would be worried about situations where there’s an increase in tendency to set up platforms and pledges that are outside of the negotiation process. We think that it disadvantages developing countries.”

Sonam Phuntsho Wangdi, Chair of the Least Developed Countries Group at UN Climate Change Negotiations, said last week that the COP26 climate summit had been disappointing so far due to a lack of progress.

Wangdi said: “The progress made here is disappointing and, in a way, also frightening.”

In a statement ahead of the climate summit, the Least Developed Countries said: “Raising global ambition and increasing climate finance is paramount to our survival.”

Sudan, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Burundi, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia are among the 46 countries on the UN’s list of least developed countries.