PM appeals to leaders to step up pace to get financial help for nations in climate change fight
By Marlon Madden
Prime Minister Mia Mottley has issued a challenge to other world leaders to “step up the pace” of efforts to persuade multilateral financial agencies to better assist nations feeling the brunt of climate change, and get bigger contributions for the climate fight from multinational corporations.
Her plea came on Thursday during the opening of the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact being held in Paris, France.
“My plea simply now is to step up the pace and let’s get going,” said Mottley, who was responsible for the introduction of the Bridgetown Initiative which, among other things, calls for the reform of funding mechanisms to finance climate resilience building in less developed countries that are feeling the brunt of climate change.
The two-day summit, which takes into account the one-year-old Bridgetown Initiative, brings together leaders of international organisations, heads of state and governments, representatives of foundations, civil society, funds and the private sector, to debate issues and solutions relating to climate adaptation and financing.
“What is required of us is not simply to mark a card for progress . . . . What is required from us now is absolute transformation and not reform of our institutions,” said Mottley.
“That transformation is required because while the world knew since the 1890s that we were facing the warming of the climate, we chose not to heed the advice of scientists. And that which could have been done in more than a century is now being reduced to be done in less than a decade.”
Declaring “we don’t need a lot more words today”, Mottley shared the plight of the region as it prepares for Tropical Storm Bret.
The Barbadian leader, who admitted that she had to make a decision on whether to stay at the climate financing summit or return to her country which on Thursday was feeling the effects of the system, said, “I chose to stay because it is important that we move to action.”
“Behind Tropical Storm Bret is another system and hence, this is our new reality,” she added.
While she acknowledged increased talk and some movement on the introduction of natural disaster clauses in debt deals, Mottley said there is now a need to “perfect it”.
“I ask us today not to leave Paris without understanding that the bolstering of the political ambition that is required must secure transformation and not reform. And I ask us to ensure that those of us who are heads of government and heads of state recognise that the world cannot continue into the shadow of an old imperial order that does not see countries, does not feel countries, does not hear countries and worse, does not see, feel or hear people,” Mottley pleaded.
In fact, she suggested that countries should recognise their influence in forcing the needed transformation within the multilateral lending institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.
“I ask us today to recognise that we cannot come to Paris but let our directors go back to the IMF or the World Bank and it be business as usual. They do not act in their own interest, they act on behalf of our sovereign states,” said Mottley.
She also urged the reform of governance systems to ensure that companies play a greater role in the fight against the climate crisis.
The Prime Minister argued that their efforts should go beyond philanthropy because they “like it”, and should instead be about “what the world needs”.
“We do not ask for the bankruptcy of private companies; that is not our wish. But we do ask for everybody to share the burden so that we can share the bounty,” she said.
“It therefore means that simply relying and holding governments accountable has run its course, and what is necessary now is for us to bring to the table also, multinational corporations whose balance sheets dwarf more than two-thirds of the world states. That is the world we have created out of the last century, and if we don’t recognise that they cannot be left out of the equation, then we have no desire to solve the problem,” she argued.
Mottley urged the summit attendees to go away with the fervour to “act today at scale, with pace”, as she encouraged them to “make enough noise consistently to command the attention of those who must speak and who must act”.
“Let us, as the representatives of our people at this most unique time in the history of civilisation, not only do the right thing but do it in time and do it for the right reasons,” she urged.
