Read our Privacy noticeRich countries should provide significantly more foreign aid – in the form of grants and donations, rather than loans – to help the world’s most fragile countries adapt to the climate crisis, David Miliband has told The Independent. Such financing is important not only because the “last thing fragile states need is more debts ”, Miliband continues, but also because it is very hard for climate adaptation efforts to attract money in such countries. “We have to really shift this inverse relationship at the moment, where the poorer and more exposed you are to climate change, the less money you get for climate adaptation,” he adds. They warned that they are among the most vulnerable to impacts of the climate crisis, but are only receiving 10 per cent of global climate aid, which is preventing them from adapting and building resilience to the devastating impacts of the climate crisis. The comments came a year after a network of conflict-affected and climate-vulnerable countries was formed at Cop29 in Azerbaijan in 2024, which came with a call for $20 billion in aid annually to meet these countries’ climate adaptation needs.