In Lesotho, UN chief Guterres urges rich nations to meet new commitments on climate finance

MASERU, Lesotho (AP) — United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday urged rich nations to honor their commitments to help the world's poor countries fight climate change in a speech to Lesotho's Parliament and repeated his hope that Africa would soon have permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council.

Guterres is on a three-day visit to southern Africa and was in South Africa on Wednesday. His two-day trip to neighboring Lesotho, a small landlocked mountainous kingdom, will also see him visit the Katse Dam, an integral part of the country's plans to harness its water reserves.

A focus of Guterres' visit has been the money poor nations in Africa and elsewhere need to deal with the impact of a warming planet. While Africa contributes a tiny amount to global warming, it is one of the worst affected continents.

Countries adopted an agreement at the U.N. climate talks in Azerbaijan last month to inject at least $300 billion a year to help developing nations cope with global warming. It was far short of the more than $1 trillion developing countries were calling for.