New taxes on air travel and maritime shipping could raise the billions of dollars needed to help the countries suffering most from climate change, a UN expert said Friday. "Such levies, based on the well-established polluter-pays principle, could raise hundreds of billions of dollars annually to assist small island developing states (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs) recover and rebuild from the damage caused by climate change," said David Boyd, UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment. The climate crisis is also a human rights crisis, he said in a message directed at world leaders gathering in the UK's Glasgow for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) that starts Sunday. "People living on these small islands and at least developed countries are already suffering devastating losses and damage from climate change – more frequent extreme weather events, floods, droughts, rising sea levels, and saltwater contamination of their water supplies and agricultural lands." Read: EU lauds Bangladesh’s leadership on climate front