By Climate Spotlight
“My people know that a brutal hurricane could destroy the progress that they’ve achieved in just a few agonizing hours,” said Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, during his presentation at the United Nations 80th session held in New York from September 23–29. Browne said that the people of Antigua and Barbuda have lived this reality—of losing everything in the blink of an eye—and each year they fear they may live it again.
This is a resounding and sobering truth for all Caribbean nations: these small island states are literally on the front lines of climate change, at the highest risk of climate impacts.
Still, as Browne mentioned, Antigua and Barbuda, despite being vulnerable to great shocks, have limited access to affordable financing.
“The fact that my country’s economy is among the fastest growing in the Caribbean and enjoys a high level of human development owes little to the global financial system, and even less to the global effort to curb climate change,” he said.
He is urging those countries with greater resources to make addressing global climate change a priority. The survival of small islands like Antigua and Barbuda depends on the actions taken to bolster their climate resilience.
“The climate crisis is not a weather forecast—certainly not for small island states—it is our daily plight,” Browne said. He reiterated that this plight is not the fate or lot of Caribbean nations, but a result of sustained high greenhouse gas emissions.
“We support a just, orderly energy transition. A transition that first caps, then fairly phases down, and ultimately phases out the fossil fuels that drive this destruction—without sacrificing energy security or development,” Browne said.
He is calling for a “fair carbon levy on the heaviest emitters, public and private,” aimed at addressing the ethical and practical responsibilities of the most significant contributors to climate change. He said proceeds should go to fund adaptation, loss and damage, and resilience.
On the Loss and Damage Fund, he said that it should operate as promised:
“Predictable, front-loaded financing that arrives when disaster strikes, disbursed timely on objective triggers so that help comes at the speed of need.”
Prime Minister Browne’s full address can be found on the United Nations YouTube Channel.
