'Very humiliating': Bangladesh's Yunus seethes over COP29 fight for climate money

Baku: In the three months since becoming Bangladesh s interim leader following a student led revolution, Muhammad Yunus has endured political turmoil,...

Baku: In the three months since becoming Bangladesh's interim leader following a student-led revolution, Muhammad Yunus has endured political turmoil, impatient cries for elections, and destructive flooding across the low-lying nation.

Now, the Nobel Peace Prize winner has been thrust into a brawl over money to help poorer countries deal with climate change -- and he is not pleased about it.

The 84-year-old micro-finance pioneer, who took over after the toppling of autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina in August, likened the haggling at the UN COP29 climate summit to a "fish market".

"I think that's very humiliating, for nations to come and ask for money to fix... (the) problem that others caused for them," Yunus told AFP in an interview in Azerbaijan, which is hosting the talks.

"Why should we be dragged here to negotiate? You know the problem."