As the world prepares for COP27 next week, Barbados Prime Minister, the Honourable Mia Amor Mottley continues to put pressure on the developed world to take responsibility for their part in creating the climate crisis. Writing for Time magazine, Mottley implores:

"Today, the front line of the climate crisis lies between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, where 40% of the world lives. This belt around the equator is where temperatures will reach the most intolerable, and sea levels will rise the most. It’s also home to those who have contributed the least to the greenhouse gases that cause global warming."

In July this year, The Bridgetown Initiative, developed with input from global academics and civil society, gathered in Bridgetown, Barbados to seek reconciliation by focusing the attention of problems and solutions global needs and opportunities, not nations. One of the critical issues discussed was climate loss and damage.

The initiative calls for a new global mechanism where there is an automatic release of international cash and material support for reconstruction wherever an independently verified, significant climate disaster occurs, or when slow-onset disaster happens. This support cannot come in the form of new debt, as climate-vulnerable countries already struggle with high debt because of previous climate costs.

Read more of Prime Minister Mottley's article for Time Magazine.