IMPROVING INTEGRITY FOR PRIVATE SECTOR FINANCE
5.3
Partnerships to get on the right pathway
With access to finance, countries in the Caribbean can move faster on reaching their climate goals while creating jobs and other opportunities.
F ossil fuel subsidies receive 10 times that which exists for renewable energy. Equally, in small states, we face the real- ity that the cost of renewable energy supply and electricity to our cit- izens will probably be higher than the traditional use of fossil fuels … Permitting is critical. But most small states don’t have the level of skills neces- sary to create that regulatory framework easily. So while we speak to the urgent need for financing as we continue to do with the Bridgetown Initiative, and while we push for greater amounts to be applied there, not just of public money, but of other money and public-private approaches, we have to also come to grips with the reality that there are some non-financial issues that can also under- mine our ability to reach this target … The reality is that in the Caribbean, there are certain countries that would like to move faster, but we have the opportunity for significant capacity in solar, wind, geothermal, and a num- ber of other renewables. Bottom line is, however, that each investment will probably not attract any attention from you, Mike [Bloomberg], because it’s probably too small. But if we take the investments and pool them collectively and look for collective offtake agreements, then per- haps we can begin to catapult the level of speed that we need in order to reach 2030 … If we are serious about reaching the … targets for 2030, then we have to be practical with respect to these other issues … While we accept that there has to be far greater utilization of domestic financing than has been discussed thus far, the reality is that it is the part-
nership between foreign and domestic capital that is going to get us there. Most of our countries are borrowing at rates that are just not sustainable. And that is why the Jet-B projects … really have not gotten off the ground with the pace that we expected it to. I want to salute President [Ajay] Banga from the World Bank for agreeing to introduce more 50-year loans for climate-vulnerable countries to be able to help us get part of the way. I want to salute Kristalina [Georgieva] for introducing the Resilience and Sus- tainability Trust, which allows many of us to be able to start to plan out our way. But even then, it is limited. And in our own case in Barbados, we’ve used a significant portion of those funds to partner with the Latin American Development Bank, the Green Climate Fund, the United States USAID, and indeed Guyana and Bahamas to be able to establish for the first time a blue- green investment bank in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean that will be a market maker to help close the gap with respect to some of the financing. But … we’re not moving with suffi- cient speed. And we are not moving on a broad enough front. Sultan [Al Jaber], you have been able to add significantly to the global financing with the establish- ment of ALTÉRRA … My fear is that we say the same thing year after year after year, but the only difference is that the temperature keeps getting higher and higher and the consequences of our failure to act with speed become real in so many parts of the world that have not yet hitherto been exposed to it. We have a moral obligation to get the financing
Mia Mottley, prime minister, Barbados
MY FEAR IS THAT WE SAY THE SAME THING YEAR AFTER YEAR ¼ÁÏÀÍÔÀ¼Í½ÐÏÏÃÀ ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT THE TEMPERATURE KEEPS GETTING HIGHER AND HIGHER AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF OUR FAILURE TO ACT WITH SPEED BECOME REAL IN SO MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD THAT HAVE NOT YET HITHERTO BEEN EXPOSED TO IT.
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Financing a Just Transition
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