A country of fertile, densely populated deltas, low-lying Bangladesh is one of the world’s most vulnerable nations to climate change.

But the urgency of the situation will not be matched by action by countries responsible for emissions, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said.

“They don’t trade. They can talk, but they don’t act,” she told the AFP news agency during a visit to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

“The rich countries, the developed countries, that is their responsibility. You should report. But we don’t get that much reaction from them. That’s the tragedy,” she said.

“I know the rich countries, they always want to get richer. They don’t care about others.”

Bangladesh has produced a tiny amount of the greenhouse gas emissions that have already contributed to warming the planet by an average of almost 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The Paris Agreement called for $100 billion a year from wealthy nations by 2020 to help developing countries deal with climate change. According to figures from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 83.3 billion US dollars were pledged this year, including from private sources.

A key question at the next UN climate summit, to be held in Egypt in November, is whether wealthy nations must also pay for losses and damage from climate change – and not just for adaptation and mitigation.

“We want this fund to be raised. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a good response from the industrialized countries,” said Hasina.

“Because they are responsible for this damage, they should come forward,” added the 74-year-old.

Wealthy nations have agreed to only discuss the loss and damage issue until 2024.

At this year’s General Assembly, repeated calls for climate justice were made. The leader of tiny Vanuatu has been pushing for an international deal against fossil fuels, while Pakistan’s prime minister has warned that floods that have engulfed a third of his country could also happen elsewhere.

The climate isn’t the only issue on which Bangladesh sees Western inaction.

About 750,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in 2017 after a scorched-earth campaign against the minority group by troops in neighboring Myanmar, a campaign the United States has described as genocidal.

While the world has hailed Bangladesh for taking in the refugees – along with 100,000 who have fled previous violence – attention has shifted since the Covid-19 pandemic and now the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“As long as they are in our country, we are committed,” she said. But patience is running low for Bangladeshi hosts, she said.

Michelle Bachelet, then UN human rights chief, said during a visit in August that there was growing anti-Rohingya sentiment in Bangladesh.

“The local people are also suffering a lot,” said Hasina. “I can’t say they’re angry, but they’re uncomfortable.”

“The whole burden is coming at us. That’s a problem.”

The mostly Muslim Rohingya refugees mostly live in ramshackle camps with tarpaulins, metal sheets and bamboo.

During her visit, Bachelet said there was no prospect of her being sent back to predominantly Buddhist, military-run Myanmar, where the Rohingya are not considered citizens.

But in her interview, Hasina signaled that there were few options other than for the Rohingya to live in camps.

“It is not possible for us to give them an open space because they have their own country. They want to go back there. So that’s the main priority for everyone,” Hasina said.

“If someone wants to take them, they can take them,” she added. “Why should I object?”