Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley has again made international headlines for her contributions to global discussions on the issue of Climate Change, this time at the 27th Session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – COP 27.
“I ask us how many more, and how much more must happen and I say so because there is no simplicity in it, we get it. I come from a small island state that has high ambition but that is not able to deliver on that high ambition because the global industrial strategy that we have has faults in it. Our ability to access electric cars or our ability to access batteries or photovoltaic panels are constrained by those countries that have a dominant presence and can produce for themselves but the global south remains at the mercy of the global north on these issues”, Mottley told her fellow world leaders.
At the time, Mottley was taking industrialised nations or “The Global North” to task for failing the developing world, or “The Global South”, in the fight against Climate Change. Mottley lamented that the Global North has prospered, creating a global crisis characterised by high carbon emissions, while the developing world was left to pay the price – fighting issues it did not create.
“How many more countries must falter, particularly in a world that is now suffering the consequences of war and inflation and countries therefore are unable to meet the challenges of finding the necessary resources to finance their way to net zero. This world looks still too much like it did when it was part of an imperialistic empire”, she said.
Mottley is adamant that the prevailing circumstances are “fundamentally unfair”, and that something must be done now to unlock the necessary funding that developing countries need to support their journey to net zero.
“We accept that there was and must be a commitment to unlocking concessional funding for climate vulnerable countries. There is no way that developing countries who have been graduated can fight this battle without access to concessional funding… We believe that it is critical that we address the issue of loss and damage. The talk must come to an end”, she said.