Prime Minister Mia Mottley on Tuesday called for new global levies that could raise up to US$690 billion annually to tackle the climate crisis, as she outlined a seven-point action plan to reverse the current trajectory of a planet that is hurtling towards catastrophe.
She told the 191st session of the United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, that “if we put a $5 per ton on CO2 for fossil fuel extraction, we can raise $210 billion a year. If we put $100 per ton on CO2 for shipping, we can raise in excess of $80 billion a year; and we have not addressed aviation, or indeed, the elephant in the room, 0.1 per cent on all bonds and stocks that can raise us in excess of $400 billion”.
Mottley warned the assembly of some 80 heads of state and government that extreme weather events require “a serious commitment at the COP29 with respect to new collective quantified goals” to reverse the current trajectory and fund mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage.
Addressing the current shortfall in climate funding, Mottley highlighted that the Loss and Damage Fund that she championed at the last climate conference has only attracted $700 million: “And this is despite the numerous crises besetting small island developing states (SIDS), and indeed, in our own region, Hurricane Beryl, which has caused serious damage to countries from housing to public infrastructure and indeed from agriculture to fisheries in my own country.”
Prime Minister Mottley outlined seven urgent steps to tackle the climate crisis head-on, beginning with proper capitalisation of the under-funded Loss and Damage Fund, and the SIDS window in the Global Environment Facility’s Special Climate Change Fund, which she noted remains un-funded.
She said developing countries must also have access to cheaper, longer-term capital, in circumstances where they can scale up investments for adaptation.
Her third point called for loosening the economic constraints on vulnerable countries by advancing financial reforms in Bridgetown Initiative 3.0.
“We must change the rules of the game, shock-proof vulnerable economies, and indeed, review debt sustainability while at the same time augmenting resources,” the Barbadian leader said.
Fourth, Mottley insisted that rich nations deliver on their financial pledges: “We must ensure, time and again, that the commitments made, whether for 0.7 per cent of GNI or indeed, the $100 billion, or recently, the $30 billion with respect to biodiversity that these are met. We must have transparency and accountability on the part of everyone.”
The plan also highlighted methane emissions, which Mottley described as “responsible for 45 per cent of current global warming and is 80 times as devilish as CO2, with respect to warming the planet”. She endorsed Pope Francis’s call for a global methane agreement as “a parallel track to decarbonisation”.
Her final recommendations advocated for high-integrity carbon markets and a universal carbon pricing mechanism to address disparities between northern and southern nations.
Mottley concluded with a call for every COP conference to make progress “irrespective of the geopolitical dynamics”, adding: “May we ensure that our ambitions are not only high, but our actions mimic the ambitions which we have if we are to ensure that our people are not to be the victims of this awful climate crisis.”
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