Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley isn’t letting up in her call for a level playing field for the financing and facilitation of climate resilience for Caribbean countries.
The Barbadian leader yesterday issued a repeated, but powerful call for unity and action on climate and biodiversity protection, urging world leaders and citizens to rise above complacency and take bold steps to safeguard the planet.
She made the suggestions while addressing the Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit in Guyana, framing the climate crisis as not just a scientific or legal issue, but a lived reality for Caribbean people.
“We are exactly where we are intended to be today at this point in time,” Mottley said, reflecting on recent landmark rulings from the International Court of Justice and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Mottley said the region’s experience with climate disasters was comparable to posttraumatic stress. Try living in the Caribbean or the Pacific, she said, where for half the year, “you literally go to sleep every night wondering whether a freak storm will happen”.
She recalled Hurricane Elsa in 2021, which destroyed or damaged more than 1 000 homes in Barbados and the recent devastation from Hurricane Beryl, which also battered the Grenadines. While Barbados was spared loss of life, she said the country suffered “body blows” to its coastal environment, with lasting impacts on the fishing and tourism sectors.
Mottley unveiled a series of national environmental initiatives, including the upcoming launch of the Barbados Oceans and Coastal Authority, designed to protect marine ecosystems and prevent salt water intrusion into freshwater aquifers.
“If our aquifers are polluted by salt water, then we will no longer be able to use those aquifers for the provision of drinking water,” she warned.
She also highlighted the Government’s commitment to local action, even while under an International Monetary Fund programme. She pointed to the reopening of the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary, closed for nearly two decades, and efforts to protect remaining wetlands.
The Prime Minister said Barbados was also pursuing international innovation in climate finance, having completed a “blue bond” debt-for-nature swap with help from the Inter-American Development Bank and The Nature Conservancy.
“We’ve been able to save somewhere between US$50-60 million over 15 years,” she noted, adding that almost a third of Barbados’ marine space (about 55 000 square kilometres) was now earmarked for protection.
“This is not academic. It will determine what kind of livelihoods our people will have, what percentage of our national budget must go to recovering from climate crises, what kind of economic and social stability our countries can maintain,” she said.
She urged the international community to embrace fairness in global financing.
“If we are to agree that there are global public goods then there must be a dedicated financing mechanism. If not, a few will carry a disproportionate burden. Our country has done its part but the scale of what we face is so great that it cannot be done in isolation”. (BA)
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