As leaders, negotiators and activists head to the Scottish city of Glasgow this week for the Sunday start of the COP26 U.N. climate change negotiations, one thing is missing: money.

Wealthier countries who promised to deliver $100 billion a year starting by 2020 to help poorer nations grow cleanly and adapt to worsening climate change impacts admitted this week they wouldn't reach that goal until 2023.

That means some of the most climate-vulnerable countries - who contributed least to global warming - will struggle for the cash to put their climate plans into effect, hamstringing global efforts to keep the planet safe for people.

"It is shameful that rich countries are only now – one week before COP26 – trying to explain how they intend to try to make good on a commitment they have known about for 12 years," said John Nordbo, a senior climate advisor with aid group CARE International.

Vulnerable countries also say they have been forced to scale back their delegations to the summit as a result of COVID-19-related border closures, quarantine rules and resulting high travel costs.

"We know that not having a presence in the way that we would have in a normal year is a big disadvantage to the smallest countries," Satyendra Prasad, Fiji's ambassador to the United Nations, told correspondent Beh Lih Yi.

On the ground outside the COP26 venue, however, climate action is pushing ahead. 

Sierra Leone just named Africa's first "chief heat officer", with the aim of holding down risks from rising heat extremes. And in Lebanon, worsening cuts to state-run electricity supplies - and expensive diesel costs for backup generators - have more residents turning to solar power to keep the lights on.

How well democratic leaders fare in tackling rising climate threats may determine whether democracies thrive in the future, or are replaced by more authoritarian or populist regimes, researchers warned Tuesday.

Worsening disasters and the resulting societal upheaval could "be used as an excuse for autocratic ... regimes to curtail democratic freedoms, as experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic," a new report warned.

But democracies can take steps now to shore up their ability to deal with climate change, from lowering the voting age and making it easier to file class-action lawsuits to tackling disinformation and setting a carbon price, it said.

"This is the time to be bold, and experiment and rethink," said Kevin Casas-Zamora, the Costa Rican secretary-general of International IDEA, which produced the report.

See you next week! If you're at COP26, look us up....

Laurie

'Shameful' failure to meet climate finance goal risks undermining COP26 talks
A delivery plan for money promised to climate-vulnerable countries shows a 2020 goal won't be reached until 2023, which could hamper progress at key U.N. summit

Sierra Leone names Africa's first chief heat officer
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'Giving life to dying land': Solar water pumps quench thirsty Kenyan farms
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Can solar power solve Lebanon's energy crisis?
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COVID-19 challenges 'disadvantage' smaller nations in COP26 climate talks
Border closures, quarantine rules and high travel costs will see vulnerable nations sending smaller delegations to the U.N. climate talks - and just four Pacific leaders are due to attend in person

Democracies that fail to act on climate change face 'existential' threat
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Climate migration predicted to rise in India as extreme weather worsens
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