Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley on Monday called on world leaders to take firm and decisive action to tackle climate change as a global summit, considered a make-or-break chance to save the planet from catastrophe, began.
Mottley addressed political will and financing for climate change adaptation in a speech to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26.
The Prime Minister told the gathering“when will we as world leaders across the world address the pressing issues that are truly causing our people angst and worry, whether it is climate or whether it is vaccines? Simply put, when will leaders lead?”
“Our people are watching and our people are taking note and are we really going to leave Scotland without the resolve and the ambition that is sorely needed to save lives and to save our planet?”
Mottley added, “How many more voices and how many more pictures of people must we see on these screens without being able to move or are we so blinded and hardened that we can no longer appreciate the cries of humanity”Â
 COP26 is currently underway in Glasgow.
Meanwhile, Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness delivered a sobering message at the World Leaders Summit at the start of the global climate conference in Glasgow, telling delegates the same urgency with which the world has responded to the novel coronavirus pandemic needs to be applied to the climate crisis.
“The pandemic has demonstrated that the world has the capacity to develop global solutions in record time when we believe and agree that the problem threatens safety and security,” said the Jamaican prime minister, who was one of more than 120 heads of state and government to address the conference.
“Here at COP26, in the context of a pandemic, the message is clear: Climate remains a pre-eminent priority for global action.
Holness said, too, that the pandemic has also demonstrated the need for equity, another requirement in the response to climate change.
“Countries that have profited the most from carbon over decades have a responsibility to make resources and technology available to others to adapt and transition to a low-carbon economy,” he argued.
