Climate change is often discussed as a distant environmental problem, a matter of temperatures, carbon targets, and scientific projections. For countries such as the Maldives, Bangladesh and Nepal, however, it is no longer an abstract debate. It is about territory, food, water, livelihoods and, ultimately, national survival. Former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed recently put the argument in unusually clear terms: climate-vulnerable countries are not asking for charity. They are asking for what is rightfully theirs.