8 November, Cairo, Egypt
Excellences, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, permit me to thank you your Excellency President El-Sisi for your wonderful hospitality, and for all courtesies extended to us. And I want to congratulate Simon Steele, a son of the Caribbean of whom we are very proud in his new role as executive director.
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 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 heatwaves 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, 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. 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 a rover on Mars. 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 to make a definable difference in the lives of the people who we have a responsibility to serve, seem still not to be capable of being produced.
I ask us how many more and how much more must happen. And I say so because there is no simplicity in it. We get it. I come from a small island state that has high ambition, but that is not able to deliver on that high ambition because the global industrial strategy that we have has fault lines in it. Our ability to access electric cars or our ability to access batteries or photovoltic panels are constrained by those countries that have the dominant presence and can produce for themselves.
But the global south remains at the mercy of the global north on these issues. But it isn't only in that. We heard our gorgeous north speak about the difference in the course of capital to those of us in the global south. And I ask us how many more people must speak before those of us who have the capacity to instruct our directors at the World Bank — is that called the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development only for the 20th century? — at the IMF, which has least has been trying more than the World Bank, how many more countries must falter , particularly in a world that is now suffering the consequences of war and inflation, and countries therefore are unable to meet the challenges of finding the necessary resources to finance their way to net zero.
This world looks still too much like it did when it was part of an imperialistic empire. The global North borrows at interest rates of between one to 4%. The global south at 14%, and then we wonder why the just energy partnerships are not working.
Similarly, we ask ourselves if countries that want to finance their way to net zero, and want to do the right thing can't get the critical supplies, will they not have to rely again on natural gas as that clean bridge?
This is the ball reality, and we have come here to ask us to open our minds to different possibilities.
We believe that we have a plan. We believe that there can be the establishment of a climate mitigation trust that unlocks $5 trillion of private sector savings. If we can summon the will to use the SDRs. 500 billion of SDRs, special drawing rights, in a way that unlocks the private sector capital. We believe that that requires a change in the attitude of Congress. Because the agreement that establishes the International Monetary Fund requires 85% to change that agreement. And if the United States government has 17% of the quarter, then it can't be done, Mr. Gore, without your Congress.
Similarly, we accept that there was and must be a commitment to unlocking concession funding for climate vulnerable countries. There is no way that developing countries who have been graduated can fight this battle without access to concessional funding.
We heard it on this stage from the head of my old alma mater at USC. We believe that it is critical that we address the issue of loss and damage. The top must come to an end. And I'd like to salute Denmark and Belgium and Scotland, for their own modest ways of trying to accept the precepts and principles of loss and damage as critical and as morally just.
But for loss and damage to work, we believe that it can't only be an issue of asking state parties to do the right thing, although they must, but we believe that the non-state actors and the stakeholders, the oil and gas companies and those who facilitate them need to be brought into a special convocation between now and COP 28. How do companies make 200 billion in profits in the last three months and not expect to contribute at least 10 cents in every dollar of profit to a loss and damage fund?
This is what our people expect and I ask us as we reflect on what a loss and damage fund can look like and who should access it, that we convene a special convocation that doesn't only involve state parties, but non-state actors such as the same companies. We believe as well that a time has come for the introduction of natural disaster and pandemic clauses in our debt instruments. I have said that if Barbados is hit tomorrow, because we have natural disaster clauses, God forbid if we are hit tomorrow, we unlock 18% of GDP over the next two years, because what we do is effectively put a pause on all of our debt and put it at the end for two years and put it at the end and we pay back that money at the end. But what we get is the flexibility in the first two years to address issues of damage and loss.
And finally, we believe that the multilateral development banks have to reform. Yes, it is time for us to revisit Bretton Woods. Yes, it is time for us to remember that those countries who sit in this room today did not exist at the time that the Bretton Woods institutions were formed for the most part, and therefore, we have not seen, we have not been heard sufficiently. And if we are therefore to rise to the occasion to play our part, to stop the tragic loss of life that we have seen on these screens, and the impact on livelihoods that we are feeling across our countries, then there needs to be a new deal with respect to the Bretton Woods institutions. And we need to ensure that they have a different view to their risk appetite, that we look at the SDRs, and that we look at other innovative ways to expand the lending that is available from billions to trillions.
My friends, the time is running out on us. And yes, we have the power of choice. When asked, what should he do when he became president of South Africa, should he pursue a path of vengeance or should he seek to build a state, Nelson Mandela chose to be able to build a state and to keep a country together.
He chose blessings instead of curse, because he believed that it would make a defining difference.
When given the choice of how to treat to post-war Europe, President Truman settled the Marshall Plan that made the definable difference to the countries that were responsible, yes, for the destruction of so much and for the loss of life of so many. But in spite of that they chose to rise above it.
I ask today, what will our choice be? We have the power to act or the power to remain passive and do nothing.
I pray that we will leave Egypt with a clear understanding that the things that are facing us today are all interconnected. I thank President El-Sisi for his comments that there needs to be peace, because countries like ours continue to suffer as a result of a war that we have no part of, and a war that we want to see come to an end.
Our people on this earth deserve better and what is more our leaders know better.
Because while many of us may not have been alive during the Great wars, the consequences of those wars to live with us and we have the capacity to choose differently. I ask the people of the world and not just the leaders, therefore, to hold us accountable and to ask us to act in your name, to save this earth, and to save the people of this earth. The choice is ours. What will you do? What will you choose to save?
Thank you.