PM on overseas mission to find climate change financing

Over the next two weeks, Prime Minister Mia Mottley will engage in a series of high-level meetings in several countries to secure financing to help Barbados and other small island developing states boost their response to the effects of climate change.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday afternoon, a few hours before leaving the country, she said her first stop will be London where she will address a caucus of British High Commissioners on the Bridgetown Initiative, a proposal which urges major reform of the global financial system in a bid to unlock climate financing for developing countries
“All of the British High Commissioners and ambassadors globally…have invited me to speak to them, particularly on the Bridgetown Initiative and our ability to be able to get this new financing deal, not just for Barbados but for the world – whether it is increasing the capital of the World Bank and other regional development banks so that they can lend us at affordable rates to put in water pipes, to do the coastal preservation, and to ensure that our aquifers are not the only thing we rely on, particularly when the saline activity becomes too high,” she said.
Speaking on the upcoming Paris Summit, set for June 22-23, Mottley said several countries have already signalled interest in the natural disaster clauses of the Bridgetown Initiative which call for a pause in debt service for two years after a climatic crisis without affecting credit ratings.
“That space you’ll get, in our particular case in Barbados, will be the equivalent of about $2 billion. So when we talk about getting these clauses accepted, it is not a little bit of money we are talking about, and we have gotten the natural disaster clauses embedded in our commercial instruments when we restructured our debt. Barbados is the largest issuer of commercial paper in the world with natural disaster clauses, and that others will now be seeking to follow us is an example of how we have been able to lead in this respect.
“Where we want progress for Barbados and other countries is that we want the multilateral development banks and the regional development bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, the Caribbean Development Bank, to be able to put these natural disaster clauses in their debt instruments too. So instead of us only benefiting from $2 billion because of the clauses in our commercial paper, we can benefit more when it becomes accepted across the multilateral banks. That is what Paris is about!” the Prime Minister stressed.
Following an address to the International Labour Organisation conference in Geneva, a meeting is scheduled in Ghana between Mottley and officials from the African Export/Import Bank (Afreximbank) which is set to open an office in Barbados in July.
“Next month, the [Afreximbank] will open its offices in Barbados as the regional headquarters for the Caribbean and the Americas. It is a significant conferral of confidence in the country that they have chosen us to be that location from which to do the work,” the Prime Minister said.
She is also scheduled to head to China to hold talks with President Xi Jinping.
Mottley spoke about her upcoming overseas efforts at the Hillcrest Bathsheba Community Centre, following a tour with visiting European Commission Vice President for the European Green Deal Frans Timmermans
(JB)