Source: A Powerful Climate Leader From a Small Island Nation – The New York Times
By David Gelles
Dec. 14, 2022
This article is part of our Women and Leadership special report that profiles women leading the way on climate, politics and business around the globe.
At last year’s United Nations climate change summit in Glasgow, Scotland, a powerful new voice emerged in the debate about the warming planet: Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados.
With an impassioned speech on the first day of the 2021 conference, Ms. Mottley portrayed the battle to cope with climate change in moralistic terms, calling on rich nations to help poor countries recover from disasters and adapt to global warming.
“Our people are watching, and our people are taking note,” she said. “Are we really going to leave Scotland without the commitment to ambition that is sorely needed to save lives and to save our planet? Or are we so blinded and hardened that we can no longer appreciate the cries of humanity?”
The speech vaulted Ms. Mottley, 57, to the forefront of the global conversation about climate. And in recent years, she has capitalized on her authority.
She worked with the International Monetary Fund and private lenders to restructure the terms of Barbados’ debt; the country was able to lower its interest payments and will be granted more flexibility in meeting its obligations in the event of a severe hurricane.
In September, Barbados unveiled a new project with the Nature Conservancy to offer “blue bonds,” allowing the country to redirect some of the money intended for servicing its sovereign debt toward the conservation of the ocean, instead.
And in November, at the United Nations climate change summit known as COP27 in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, Ms. Mottley was back in the limelight, this time presenting an innovative plan she has developed to reform the World Bank and I.M.F.
Known as the Bridgetown Initiative, named after the Barbados capital, the plan calls for a reshaping of the global economic system that has been in place since the waning days of World War II.
The World Bank and I.M.F. were established by the 44 Allied nations at a conference at the Mt. Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, N.H., in 1944. The idea was that the World Bank would offer loans from rich countries to poor countries to help them rebuild from the war, while the I.M.F. would provide liquidity and stability to countries and ensure that they remain solvent.
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