In Paris, dozens of heads of state wrapped up a two-day summit on climate finance Friday without an agreement to tax greenhouse gas emissions produced from international shipping. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the Biden administration would consider the proposal, which was advanced by French President Emmanuel Macron. The climate action group Oil Change International noted leaders of wealthy nations were largely absent from the meeting, saying they missed a critical opportunity to redirect billions of dollars from fossil fuels, debt and the ultra-rich to address the climate crisis. This is Mitzi Tan, a climate activist from the Philippines who joined protests on the sidelines of the talks.

Mitzi Tan: “We are all in this crisis together. We are not equally impacted. Countries like the Philippines will experience it a lot worse. But we all have to band together to demand for justice, to demand for no more fossil fuel finance and to demand for debt cancellation, because that is what we need to ensure that communities and marginalized people across the world are able to access this finance and actually adapt, mitigate and live in this climate crisis.”