Under the leadership of Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, Barbados is reshaping global climate finance systems, making them fairer and more effective for climate-vulnerable nations.
Barbados is responsible for just 0.01% of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it stands on the climate frontline. Rising seas, stronger storms, droughts and floods threaten lives, livelihoods and ecosystems, jeopardising decades of social and economic progress. Across the Caribbean, unchecked climate impacts could cost as much as US$22 billion per year by 2050.
The crisis is compounded by a debt trap. Climate-vulnerable nations are forced to borrow heavily simply to recover from disasters, pushing their economies deeper into unsustainable debt. This weakens their resilience and makes it harder to invest in sustainable development. What’s more, current international finance structures often limit rather than enable climate and nature spending.
Without systemic reform, vulnerable nations like Barbados will remain under-resourced and exposed, caught between escalating climate hazards and financial systems that hold back progress.
But Barbados is not waiting to be rescued, its leaders are shaping the changes needed to make the global financial system fairer and more effective for climate action.
Through the Bridgetown Initiative, led by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, Barbados is standing up for billions worldwide impacted by climate change, and driving forward reforms to the global financial system.
Launched in 2022, the Bridgetown Initiative is already having huge impact. Its influence has led to “debt pause clauses” being added to loans from governments and global banks, allowing countries affected by natural disasters to delay repayments until they’re more recovered. Barbados has also helped redirect $100 billion from international finance programmes towards poverty reduction and is pushing for the World Bank to lower its borrowing conditions, which could free up an additional $30 billion over the next decade.
Their next stage, known as Bridgetown 3.0, is going even further. It’s backing innovative schemes that allow countries to lower their debt in return for investing in climate and nature projects and aims to unlock $100-$200 billion a year for disaster protection through special insurance programmes.
At home, Barbados’ plans to safeguard its own communities, businesses, and biodiversity is equally ambitious. By 2035, their $11.6 billion plan aims to support social wellbeing, economic growth, environmental sustainability and climate resilience.
Though small in land mass, Barbados’ leadership as a Large Ocean State is proving that courage, clarity and conviction can drive a new era of climate leadership.
The tangible results achieved so far, combined with its future ambition, continue to build momentum around the world, inspiring other island and developing nations to raise their voices.
For ocean states like ours, the climate crisis is an ever-present reality. Being named an Earthshot Finalist affirms Barbados’s conviction that climate leadership must be inclusive, practical and urgent.
We are building a coalition-based financing system that works for the most vulnerable while delivering resilience at home through conservation initiatives and our ambitious net-zero agenda.
With the Earthshot Prize’s global platform, we can scale this vision far beyond our shores, charting a path forward for all, led by those most impacted.
