Minister touts ‘economic enfranchisement for climate change’

Suggesting that the Government’s own economic reconstruction programme dubbed BERT can only go so far to finance the Barbadian response to climate change, the Minister for Economic Affairs says “economic enfranchisement” as part of a new model of development will have to finish the job.

Minister Marsha Caddle has urged Barbados to look towards economic enfranchisement to help finance climate change options. She made the comments during a workshop on financing opportunities for the private sector to invest in action on climate change, organised by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

Caddle said: “Having the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme means that we are in a 48-month programme with the International Monetary Fund.

“Also, having closed our domestic debt restructuring and about to close our external, options for financing development are limited and so partnerships are important; both partnerships in the international financial sector but also partnerships here in Barbados.

“One of the things we have to get better at is matching those ideas with resources…. Our market is not just Barbados, but also the region and the world…. But for us the key phrase and focus here has to be about economic enfranchisement in all sectors for everyone.”

Caddle said economic enfranchisement was important as Barbados looked to the future.

“I wanted us to convene this forum because I think that the future of our economy, the future of our society and the way in which we are going to build the Barbados that all of us want to live in is about matching ideas, with opportunity and finance and there is no end of great ideas, no end to creativity in Barbados.

“The adjustments that we’ve had to make and the changes we’ve had to make in the context of this economy, have as their model one of solidarity and it is something that partners here and abroad have remarked on.”

The Mottley administration has declared economic enfranchisement as a core policy in which opportunities are created to allow individuals to aspire to ownership, entrepreneurship and the wealth creation.

A financial mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the GCF helps fund climate finance investment in low-emission, climate-resilient development. Backed by $10 billion dollars (US$5 billion) in pledges from the international community, the GCF was established to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries, and help vulnerable societies adapt to the impacts of climate change.