‘Countries are drowning’: climate expert calls for urgent rethink on scale of aid for developing world

World needs to offer trillions, not billions in overseas support, says leading climate economist Avinash Persaud

The world must rethink its approach to the climate crisis, by investing trillions of dollars instead of billions in the developing world, and moving beyond conventional ideas of overseas aid, one of the world's most influential climate economists has urged.

We need a complete rethink of the whole nexus of climate, debt and development," Avinash Persaud told the Observer, before a key summit. What we are seeing today is new - countries affected by climate disaster, this is happening now. Countries are drowning."