Influential young Liberian climate defender, Ezekiel Nyanfor has called for an end to double standards in global development and climate action at the inaugural conference of the Global South NGO Platform held in Baku, Azerbaijan from (28-29) April, 2025.
Known for his strong advocacy and demands for climate justice, Ezekiel Nyanfor delivered a bold speech asserting that:
“Poverty, unsustainable development and climate change are not theories discussed in air-conditioned rooms.”
Ezekiel who’s head honcho at climate NGO, Liberian Youth for Climate Actions (LYCA) stressed that: “Systems that preach fairness but deliver exclusion is climate injustice on a global scale.”
In recent years, calls for climate justice has significantly intensified in less developed countries (Global South)- as vulnerable populations in the region bears the brunt of the adverse impacts of climate change, despite their low pollution levels.
On the other hand, the Global North (developed countries) ranked as major polluters fail to fulfill their financial commitments to help countries in the Global South build resilience against climate change.
The inaugural conference of the Global South NGO Platform (GSNP) convened representatives from over 100 countries and thousands of NGOs in a bid to improve collaboration across the Global South.
The Platform aims to further a shared perspective on the global stage, to harmonize actions by countries in the Global South in the fight against poverty and climate change, digital divide, unfair trade practices, and also improve cooperation in the Global South.
Here’s Ezekiel Nyanfor’s bold speech at the inaugural conference of the Global South NGO Platform in Baku that was widely praised by participants and many young climate campaigners across Africa- especially Liberia, his home country.
Title of speech: “No More Double Standards: NGOs as Catalyst For Fair Development in the Global South”
Excellences, distinguished colleagues, dear brothers and sisters from across the Global South.
Today, history is being made here in Baku.
Today, we stand not as scattered voices, but as one force — over 110 countries, thousands of NGOs, millions of citizens — united in calling for an end to double standards in global development and climate action.
No more systems that preach fairness but deliver exclusion.
No more investments that enrich a few while impoverishing the
many.
No more decisio sàns about us, without us.
Let us be clear:
– 85% of the world’s population lives in the Global South — yet we receive less than 25% of global development financing.
– Less than 2% of humanitarian funding reaches local and national NGOs directly.
– And still, the South bears the heaviest burdens — over 90% of climate-related deaths, and 75% of those living in extreme poverty.
In Africa, the situation is particularly painful.
We pledge to protect our forests, hold back on exploiting our natural resources, limit industrialization — all in the name of climate commitments.
Yet, we lose billions annually:
– In the Congo Basin alone, countries sacrifice an estimated $13 billion every year to preserve forests for the world.
– In Mozambique and Senegal, massive gas and oil reserves are not exploited while richer countries expand fossil fuel projects unabated.
– Across the Sahel, communities restrict farming and grazing — only to be left vulnerable to food insecurity without what is promised through climate and development finance.
This is not the cost of inaction — it is the cost of keeping our word while others break theirs.
Meanwhile, developed nations — who pledged $100 billion per year in climate finance before COP29— failed to deliver fully or fairly.
Instead of grants, we are offered loans. Instead of solidarity, we are handed conditions.
This is not the portrait of the commitments we paint in policy rooms. This is not sustainable development branded on the web pages of the United Nations, This is a sustainable way to keep poor countries poorer and dependent on handouts and burdensome loans. This is not climate justice . This is climate injustice on a global scale.
I come from Liberia — a place where the land and the people are deeply intertwined.
I have watched the floods destroy communities and farms — the land that fed generations.
I have seen children lose their homes to storms they did not cause.
I have seen classrooms empty — because young people are breadwinners instead of learners for tomorrow.
For us, poverty, unsustainable development and climate change are not theories discussed in air-conditioned rooms.
They are the graveyards where too many dreams are buried.
And every time a wealthy nation breaks a promise, another child in Liberia buries their future.
That is why I stand here — not pleading for charity — but demanding justice and truth with the urgency it deserves.
