The Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, has delivered a rousing speech at the COP27 summit in Egypt, telling world leaders they have a responsibility to act on the promises they make on climate. She also called for climate justice, warning the world could see 1 billion climate refugees by 2050.
“I don’t need to repeat that we have the power of choice, every speaker on this platform has done that,” Mottley began.
“I don’t need to repeat that this is the COP that needs action, all of us as a chorus have said that.
“I don’t need to repeat the horror and the devastation wrecked upon this Earth over the course of the last 12 months since we met in Glasgow. Whether the apocalyptic floods in Pakistan or the heat waves from Europe to China, or indeed in the last few days in my own region, the devastation caused in Belize by tropical storm Lisa, or the torrential floods a few days ago in St Lucia.
“We don’t need to repeat it because a picture spoke a thousand words earlier but what we do need to do is to understand why we are not moving any further.”
Mottley told leaders “we have the collective capacity to transform”, all that is required is the political will to do so.
“We are in the country that built pyramids, we know what it is to remove slavery from our civilization, we know what it is to be able to find a vaccine within two years when a pandemic hits us, we know what it is to put a man on the moon and now we put in Rover on Mars,” she said.
“We know what it is, but the simple political will that is necessary not just to come here and make promises, but to deliver on them and make a definable difference in the lives of the people who we have a responsibility to serve, seems still not to be capable of being produced.”
Mottley also spoke about the impact wealthy, Western nations have had on poorer nations, who have now become victims of the climate crisis they did not contribute to.
“We were the ones whose blood, sweat and tears financed the industrial revolution,” she said. “Are we now to face double jeopardy by having to pay the cost as a result of those greenhouse gases from the industrial revolution? That is fundamentally unfair.”
She warned there would be a billion climate refugees by 2050, and was critical of the World Bank, as well as countries that offer loans, not grants, to countries suffering from climate related disasters.
“We need to have a different approach, to allow grant-funded reconstruction grants going forward, in those countries that suffer from disaster. Unless that happens, we are going to see an increase in climate refugees,” she said.
“We know that by 2050, the world’s 21 million climate refugees today will become 1 billion.”
Watch Mia Mottley’s full speech below.