Barbados PM Makes Plea At COP27

Advertisement

EGYPT – Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Motley tells COP27 – The UN Climate Change Summit in Egypt, that the time for words is over, stressing a need to understand and tackle what she felt was slow progress for the required action to tackle the issues.

Earlier, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told countries that the world was on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.

The speech sent an urgent tone as governments sit down for two weeks of talks on how to avert the worst climate change.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, said:

“I came here to say a few things, but the chorus that we’ve had from this stage has been clear. I don’t need to repeat that we have the power of choice, every speaker on this platform has done that. 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 wreaked 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 Saint Lucia.

We don’t need to repeat it because those pictures spoke a thousand words earlier. But what we do need to do is to understand why we are not moving any further. “1.5 to stay alive” cannot be that mantra, and I take no pride in being associated with having to repeat it over and over and over. We have the collective capacity to transform.”