At a drinks event before President Macron’s recent climate summit in Paris, the new Barbadian High Commissioner to London told me a startling fact: his country’s entire GDP could be wiped out by a single hurricane in just four hours.
Milton Innis’s words were ringing in my ears from the moment the opening ceremony began. His Prime Minister, Mai Mottley, was a co-chair of the summit for a New Global Financing Pact. Her island nation and others like it are on a knife edge, at the brutal front line of our climate crisis — as her High Commissioner’s words had brutally illustrated.
Such destructive hurricanes are now coming to the Caribbean more and more frequently. So fair play at least to Macron for taking the lead and convening an impressive line-up of people to talk about it in Paris.
The summit, though, was a failure. And it’s one that should shame the West. Yes, there were successes on positive reforms, progress on debt and Prime Minister Mottley’s natural disaster ‘pause’ clauses (whereby loan repayments can be temporarily halted following natural disasters). But people in the global south — and our planet — need much more than that.
Private-sector leaders — who I suppose at least bothered to turn up unlike many of the G7 leaders — chose to read off statements and ask pointless questions. I wish I could say I was surprised but sadly I was not.
Rich countries are reluctant to engage with the global south’s demands despite saying they care about those issues and convening summits on them.
At this latest summit, where developing nations called for a “transformation” of the world’s financial system, western countries offered tweaks. One world leader told me in the breakout room “what they are offering and what we are asking for does not match”.
But turbocharging reform to lock in the trillions of dollars required to tackle climate change has to be priority number one for our age. The relationship between developing countries and developed countries has to change.
What is needed is true partnership. The UK under Theresa May tried that with the African investment summit, a commitment which has since been derailed by Covid and the war in Ukraine.
Macron tried with this summit, but the elephant in the room was the US and its inability under either the Democratic or Republican Party to step up and deliver real change. That failure impacted how many of the private-sector companies in the room behaved.
The next moment for real change will be the G20 in September where the UK and US, who were missing in action at this critical summit, can redeem themselves.
It will take a lot of effort — and serious diplomatic work behind the scenes — but the consequences of failure are not worth thinking about. Hurricanes that wipe out an entire nation’s GDP would be just the start.
Love Island will hook me in this summer
Love Island is back — and I am hooked once more.
This year I have been watching it more like a boxset at the weekends rather than running home every night, because I have had to be boring (also known as being social and attending real- life events — boo).
I’m always reminded that the real lasting relationships the cast find are not with those with whom they share a bed, but the boys and girls they talk things through with.
I have really been struck by Ella, Catherine and Whitney, the three girls of colour on the show who have become like sisters. In an environment that is not created for them they have emerged as the standouts of the show.
I can’t lie, I have a soft spot for Ty as well, because like my little brothers and cousins he is a playboy who is soft deep down. Watching him open up about his feelings on TV is actually sweet.
What a way to spend your summer.
