Though global warming’s legitimacy might be a talking point for politicians and pundits in the U.S., it’s a harsh reality for many third world nations on the other side of the globe. The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) met in Bangladesh over the weekend to draw up an action plan for an international climate conference in Durban in two weeks. The CVF is made up of nations that are seeing severe economic, social, and political instability as a result of rising sea levels propagated (according 99.9% of climatologists) by human activity. What’s more is the 19 constituent nations of the CVF have almost no environmental footprint where climate change is concerned. For this reason, the nations will band together to form a coalition to appeal to other nations around the globe, both resources and greater environmental stewardship.

Bangladesh, which is one of the most vulnerable to climate change, hosted the Forum over the weekend. Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina decried the inaction on the part of the largest polluters in the world (of which the U.S. is one) as a “global injustice”. "We are bearing the brunt of the damage though we made negligible or no contribution to the menace," she stated at the Forum’s close on Monday. The estimated cost in global warming’s potential devastating effects on island nations is $130 billion. Part of the CVF’s action plan includes an appeal to the U.N. and the international community in raising these funds appropriate to their level of carbon emissions and other contributing pollutants to global warming.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was the keynote speaker for the Forum, making a call to international leaders to acknowledge the threat to the most vulnerable nations as a result of continued climate change. “We are in the middle of a serious economic crisis. But even in these difficult times, we cannot afford delay,” Ki-Moon told the assembled nations, “We cannot ask the poorest and the most vulnerable to bear the costs.” He reiterated a warning made by Hasina, when she attempted to illustrate the gravity of the problem by pointed out that a single meter rise in sea level in Bangladesh will create 30 million displaced homeless.

The CVF is comprised of 19 nations total, including small island states vulnerable to extreme weather and sea-level rise, some low-lying coastal nations like Bangladesh and Vietnam, as well as the drought-stricken nations of East Africa. This coalition plans to take advantage of recent progress made in Copenhagen through the UN’s Framework Convention of Climate Change.