Barbados PM Calls For International Rules Based Order to Deal With Climate Change

UNITED NATIONS –  Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Wednesday reiterated a call for an international rules based order to help  small island developing states (SIDS)  deal  with the impact of climate change.

Barbados Prime Minister and CARICOM Chair, Mia Mottley addressing the Leaders’ Session on Climate and the Just Transition convened by President Lula and the United Nations Secretary-General (CMC Photo)Addressing the Leaders’ Session on Climate and the Just Transition convened by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, Mottley said the request is clear from SIDS regarding the international rules based order “in order for us to succeed.

“Indeed, it is would not  be possible for us to be able to offset the negative consequences of the climate crisis without this,”  she said, adding “we are conscious that there are divergent views that we currently face in 2025 that were not as apparent a few years ago.

“And in the context of that, we are reminded that we have therefore, to find common solidarity. Indeed. Pope Francis, as we mourn his loss, reminded us in his encyclical letter that to see that obstructionist attitudes, even on the part of believers, can range from denial of the problem to indifference, nonchalance, resignation or blind confidence and technical solutions, whatever it is.”

Mottley, the current chair of the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping, told the international conference that the reality is that the climate is not stopping, “and the reality is that our people are on the front line of this and it triggers other crises, as the Secretary General said.

“We have to be clear, therefore, as to what is possible. We need to redouble our efforts at the national and regional levels with respect to our indices and with respect to the financing, including, as we see in the Bridgetown Initiative, expanding the options for domestic resource mobilization.”

he Bridgetown Initiative, named for the capital city of Barbados, where the initiative originates, is a call for urgent and decisive action to reform the international financial architecture (IFA), which was designed at a time when most of today’s member states were not independent and when climate risks or social inequalities, including gender equality, were not considered pre-eminent development challenges.

These and other issues have become increasingly at odds with the reality and needs of the current world, making the IFA entirely unfit for purpose in a world characterized by unrelenting climate change, increasing systemic risks, extreme inequality, highly integrated financial markets vulnerable to cross-border contagion, and dramatic demographics, technological, economic, and geopolitical changes.

While Barbados continues to play a leading role, it is not an initiative of Barbados alone, but rather a coalition of partners in a movement for global change.

Mottley, the  only  person from the Caribbean region to  address the conference that heard addresses from  Chinese leader, Xi Jinping and Emmanuel Macron of France, said that SIDS also face the problem of having to  deal with high insurance rates “because what is uninsurable is an investment in this modern financial system.

“At the same time, we need to recognize that we have not come anywhere close to being able to get the behavioral changes at the individual level, particularly in areas where there is water scarcity or where there are floods, and where actions can be taken to be able to bring greater resilience and adaptation at the individual level, at the local level, at the state level, and of course, at the national and regional levels.”

Mottley said that at the same time, at the international level, there is need for a “simple mechanism which will allow us to maintain… greater solidarity and a greater sharing of experiences beyond access to financing.

“I want to be able to put a challenge that I really do believe that we ought to set a challenge for a 20 to 40 methane free world and if we can do that…it will advance our causes significantly. This will allow us to find common purpose with the fossil fuel people, without them having to become believers.”

Mottley told  the conference that there is need to advance the common objective of saving the planet, continuing research and making it possible  that everyone will  benefit.

“But we have to buy time recognizing that methane lasts in the environment for only 12 years and recognizing that if we can use the satellite technology that shows us all the methane leaks, work to be able to change agricultural practices and waste management practices, then we can see significant changes with respect to this entire battle for mitigation, but at the same time, continuing to force the change of behavior and the access to finance and domestically and internationally for adaptation.

“I pray that we can recognize that we don’t always see history move in a singular, vertical way, but we can, however, keep the trajectory that we have. We will not always have everybody moving at the same pace at the same time.”

But Mottley said this should not  serve as a deterrent, adding “let us go to bed and therefore, conscious that those who are prepared to bring to the fore the actions necessary for solidarity, that we work together, recognizing that at a future date others may understand the wisdom, the economics, and indeed the clear benefits not just to humanity, but to themselves individually”.