By Valerie Volcovici and Simon Jessop

NEW YORK- Developing nations on Monday pleaded at the UN General Assembly for the world’s richest to do more to help them cope with the hardships they face from climate extremes.

Leaders of small island states most at risk from rising sea levels said it was time for those countries that burn most of the fossil fuels blamed for rising temperatures to stop paying “lip service” to the issue.

“I wonder if our countries are moving further and further away from the unity and the moral fortitude we require to protect our people,” said Samoan Natural Resources and Environment Minister Cedric Schuster, who chairs the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).

The island nations of AOSIS have gained a powerful voice in global climate talks. During a news conference on Monday, Schuster called out the world’s biggest economies in the Group of 20, which together account for more than 80 percent  of global greenhouse gas emissions.

“We need all countries, but particularly the G20, to lead the way” on emissions cuts and climate finance, Schuster told reporters. “The vulnerable people of our world are drained by the lip service.”

Delivering a similar message on behalf of the Least Developed Country negotiating bloc, Malawi’s climate and natural resources minister, Yusuf Mkungula, said: “Industrialized countries must lead the way.”

The pleas underscore the widening disparity between the nations contributing most to global warming and those suffering its worst effects, demonstrating how climate change has become not just an environmental issue, but a matter of global justice.

Some country leaders spoke during a special UN “Summit for the Future,” while others addressed reporters and panels at one of the 900 or so climate-themed events being held this week across New York City.

Separately, scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research warned that humanity has now damaged at least six of the planet’s natural systems including the climate equilibrium, with a seventh – the ocean’s chemistry – now threatened by acidification, which occurs as the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the air. – Reuters