In a compelling address at the United Nations, Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda called for urgent international action to address the escalating climate and economic crises threatening small island developing states (SIDS). Speaking before global leaders, Browne emphasized the profound challenges facing these nations, including trade fragmentation, financial volatility, and increasingly frequent climate disasters. He noted that climate-related disasters in 2024 alone caused $7 billion in damages across the region. Browne highlighted the vulnerability of economies heavily reliant on tourism, which in some islands contributes over 40% of GDP. He warned that rising sea levels, projected to reach up to one metre by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), could threaten homes, ports, and entire cultures. The Prime Minister stressed the gap between global pledges and action, citing slow progress on agreements such as the Paris Climate Accord and the UN’s 2030 Agenda. He outlined regional initiatives, including the establishment of a Debt Sustainability Support service (DSS) by the Antigua and Barbuda Gender for SIDS, aimed at restructuring debt and directing financing into resilience projects. Browne urged multilateral development banks and financial institutions to expand concessional financing, adopt vulnerability-based access, and implement automatic debt service pauses in the event of disasters. He also encouraged partnerships with philanthropy and private capital to fund resilient infrastructure, clean energy, and adaptation projects. ‘State-contingent debt, climate-resilient clauses, and debt-for-nature swaps must become standard practice, not pilots,’ he said, appealing for immediate global action to safeguard the futures of the world’s most vulnerable nations.
VIDEO: Antigua and Barbuda PM Calls for Debt Relief and Financial Reform to Protect Small Island States
