GASTON BROWNE, Prime Minister, Minister for Finance, Corporate Governance and Public Private Partnerships for Antigua and Barbuda, said the choices world leaders make today in this Assembly — and every institution of governance — will shape the survival of entire nations and the world’s future.  For small States like Antigua and Barbuda, the choices to act on climate change are crucial.  “Our islands are on the frontlines of a climate catastrophe we did not cause; a debt crisis we did not create, and conflicts in which we have no part,” he said.  SIDS4 is a milestone and sparked the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS — a renewed declaration for resilient prosperity.  “This Agenda is not just a roadmap for the future; it is a lifeline for now,” he added.  At its core is the SIDS Centre of Excellence, built by these countries for themselves and meant to create ground-breaking technologies, revolutionary processes and pioneering solutions.

Through its Global Data Hub, Innovation and Technology Mechanism, Island Investment Forum and Debt Sustainability Support Service, the Centre can transform how countries adapt vulnerabilities and set a path for resilient prosperity.  “However, this vision cannot succeed in isolation.  We need the cooperation and support of the global community to ensure its success,” he added.  It is absurd that Governments subsidize the industries that accelerate the climate crisis.  He called for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty to halt the reckless destruction of the environment, to end fossil fuel subsidies and chart a course towards a sustainable future, with a negotiated and graduated transition.  “Let COP29 [Twenty-ninth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] be the moment we draw a line in the sand,” he said.  “Let it be known — we can no longer afford the luxury of delay”.  Recognizing that fossil fuels still play a role in many countries’ energy security, he called for these companies to pay a global levy to fund mitigation efforts and compensation for the damage inflicted.

There should be no additional delays at COP29 in the capitalization and operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund.  “The international financial system is skewed, outdated, and unjust — punishing the most vulnerable while rewarding the already rich and prosperous with favourable terms for their financial instruments,” he said.  ”For too long, small States like mine have been shackled by debt we did not cause; debt that arose from recovery spending on recurring disasters that are beyond our control.”  The SIDS Debt Sustainability Support Service is a critical mechanism to provide tailored solutions, using debt for climate swaps, debt relief, repurposing of SDRs and carbon pricing funding to help these States escape the cycle of unsustainable debt.  “This is not charity — it is the justice of financial inclusion,” he added.

The adoption of the multidimensional vulnerability index, which Antigua and Barbuda helped advance, offers a path to correct the unjust treatment accorded to small, vulnerable nations, he said.  It is a vital tool and acknowledges the complexities such States face, in terms of limited economic capacity, structural vulnerabilities and a lack of resilience, as well as their exposure to myriad external shocks.  International financial institutions must integrate the index into their policies to ensure that support is targeted where most needed.  “There can be no just and sustaining reform of the World Bank, other global financial institutions and multilateral banks without their effective use of the MVI,” he said.  “As I said before, the arguments for its use are irrefutable and just.”  These initiatives are a small component of the more fundamental reforms of the international financial architecture, “to provide greater funding accessibility and better terms to include lower interest rates and longer maturity transformations”.  They are part of the wider need for change, to address the historic imbalances against SIDS, including financial exclusion.