Giving Compass' Take:

• At the U.N. Climate Action Summit last week,  smaller countries made large commitments to combatting climate change, understanding and experiencing the severity of the effects of global warming.

• What role can donors play in encouraging global leaders to address climate change? 

• Read about why cities need to be a big part of climate change action. 

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres had expressed high hopes for Monday’s U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York City. Guterres personally reached out to many countries’ leaders ahead of time and told them, “[D]on’t come to the Summit with beautiful speeches. Come with concrete plans.”

But in the chambers of the General Assembly, the world’s top polluters — China, India, and the United States — made no major commitments to slash investments in fossil fuels and reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Instead, the most aggressive and ambitious commitments came from small countries, especially coastal and island states most vulnerable to the climate crisis. And those small countries are not happy to be doing the heavy lifting while the countries most responsible for climate change twiddle their thumbs.

Wilfred Elrington, minister of foreign affairs in Belize, suggested that underdeveloped coastal countries — which are on the front lines of climate change due to rising sea levels — have a deeper understanding of what the world is up against on account of their firsthand experience with havoc-wreaking tropical storms like Hurricane Dorian, Typhoon Haiyan, and Cyclone Idai in recent years. “Unless you have experienced this kind of devastation, it is really hard to understand how difficult and how absolutely destructive it is,” said Elrington, explaining why immediate action is needed.

Among the commitments made by smaller, less developed countries were promises to invest in more renewable energy and withdraw investments from fossil fuels.

Read the full article about smaller countries are making big commitments to climate action by Molly Enking at Grist.