Environment Hits: 126

Prime Minister of Barbados Pledges US$1/2m to Support Youth Entrepreneurs’ Climate Enterprises

Environment Hits: 126
Environment Hits: 126

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has pledged BDS$1 million (US$500 000) to assist the island’s young people to transform their business ideas into blue and green enterprises to sustain the planet for the long haul.

botanmiaPrime Minister Mia Mottley, assisted by some of the school children who attended the official launch of the Green Rising Programme, planted a mahogany tree in the National Botanical Gardens. (BGIS)She announced that some of the money that she received as part of the Zayed Foundation for Humanity Award in Abu Dhabi earlier this year would supplement the BDS$2 million (US$1 million) from Generation Unlimited through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for the project.

Additionally, an advisory board of experts in the blue and green economy will be established shortly to determine which projects and businesses are worthy of financial support.

Mottley made it clear that the process would be free from partisan intervention, gender considerations, age considerations, “other than being young”.

She maintained that there must be a mass movement to protect the environment, as she urged the young people to rise to the challenge of leading the behavioural change.

“If we can win the battle with changing the behaviour of our young people, then we can win the battle of shaping the future that we want to live in. And it is for this reason that I did not hesitate in accepting the responsibility to be the global Chair of Green rising because more than anything else, I want to see the young people of this planet, of this country, of this region, rise to claim that which is theirs,” Mottley underlined.

Declaring that she was “extremely proud to be associated with a programme that targeted 12 000 young people, she expressed optimism that the funding from Generation Unlimited and the donation from her foundation would “give these youngsters in Barbados $3 million Barbados dollars from which to draw, to begin to start their enterprises”.

Prime Minister Mottley made the disclosure as she addressed the audience during the official launch of the Green Rising Programme and symbolic planting of a Mahogany Tree in the National Botanical Gardens.