‘FORGIVE THE DEBT OF CLIMATE-HIT NATIONS’: PM wants nation to lead way in call for financial relief

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis. (File photo)

As of Monday, May 2, 2022

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis wants multilateral organisations to forgive those debts of small countries that are related to climate change.

He told The Tribune yesterday he plans to position the country as a leader in encouraging debt forgiveness for small, developing countries that are most susceptible to effects of climate change and said he will raise the issue at the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Egypt later this year.

Mr Davis, while discussing the issue recently at the Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum in Miami, said trying to recover from natural disasters has added $5bn to the national debt in the past five years.

“I don’t know that much attention has been paid to the small island developing states in the world,” he said.

“Our headroom to be able to do the things that’s necessary for adaptation and mitigation cost money and we look at our GDP to debt ratio and we recognise that our country in particular, and no doubt throughout the Caribbean, most of our debt (is) directly related to the consequences of climate change, hence I just mentioned that the loss of damage from hurricanes over the last five years has added at least $5 billion to our national debt, not to speak to the disruption that those incidents caused and not speaking to the recovery efforts and the loss of economic activity.

“I think it is important for all small island developing states to take a look at their debt portfolio and to speak to this aspect of it and to call on the major emitting countries to become more responsible and sensitive to this fact and the multi-laterals who feed in the climate funding relating to climate change ought to start thinking about grants and to start thinking about debt forgiveness in relation to matters that are the consequence of climate change.”

It is not clear which agencies the government will push to provide debt forgiveness.

When contacted by this newspaper yesterday to elaborate on his comments at last week’s forum, Mr Davis said serious debt forgiveness must be given consideration.

“I believe The Bahamas must petition countries and financial institutions to now give a much more thorough consideration to debt forgiveness based on the fact that we are being affected by climate change,” Mr Davis told The Tribune yesterday in a brief interview. “When you add Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Dorian, the consequences they have on our economy and the shocks they cause our economy are disrupting our growth, there has to be a more circumspect approach to how we deal with financing and debt because climate change is no fault of our own and we play a significant role as carbon sinkholes for global polluters.”

KapunkleUp 1 year, 11 months ago

So it's come down to this. After completely wrecking our economy for decades, our political leaders now are begging for a handout.

zemilou 1 year, 11 months ago

Does the Right Honourable Mr. Davis understand how heavy each Bahamian’s carbon footprint is because of our decades long dependence on an industry and lifestyle that is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Think cruise ships, airliners, freight boats, tour boats, self drive cars and boats, electrical generation, water production, imports of almost everything needed to survive from places far and wide,etc, etc..

Time to stop pointing fingers and playing with smoke and mirrors and come up with concrete strategies for change. Start with small doable steps that each citizen could take (from changing light bulbs to carpooling to solar water heaters) while formulating realistic short, medium, and long term goals for the country as a whole (large scale renewable energy, mandatory LEED building codes including rainwater cisterns for new homes above a certain value, ecotourism, education).

joeblow 1 year, 11 months ago

... I do believe nations with debt to China should refuse to pay that debt for the damage done to their economies resulting from the bio-weapon COVID 19!

tribanon 1 year, 11 months ago

But first the U.S. intelligence agencies, National Institutes of Health, Fauci et al. need to be grilled and come clean on the extent to which the U.S. was involved in the gain-of-function research that led to the bio-weaponizing of COVID-19.

TalRussell 1 year, 11 months ago

I've been Colouring-in the why I've sensed the Guardian Talk Radio's The Revolution with presenter Comrade Mr. Carmichael is auditioning to make his exit. ... Maybe the Guardian's Talking Heads with Naughty, should step forward, volunteering to conduct an on-air poll for listeners' to fire all barrels of opinions, ― Yes?

GodSpeed 1 year, 11 months ago

Well hey, lets see how much they believe in this who Climate Change religion, if it's all true and we're getting slammed by Hurricanes because of the pollution of larger countries maybe we are entitled to damages.

tribanon 1 year, 11 months ago

The number one polluting nation on our planet by far is Communist Red China. And don't for a moment expect the very corrupt Davis whose bread is buttered by Communist Red China to ever admit or complain about that simple fact.

hrysippus 1 year, 11 months ago

China has a population of 1.4 billion people so it is no surprise to find that they produce the most pollution of any country. If this was measured per capita then The Bahamas with our diesel fueled power generation and well over 100,000 vehicles on the road, would be very near to the top of the list as most polluting I suspect.

tribanon 1 year, 11 months ago

What's your point? The Bahamas cannot put even the smallest dent in global greenhouse pollution.

Red China on the other hand can put a huge dent in global pollution if the Xi Jinping led communist regime gave a damn about the Bahamas being underwater by the turn of the next century.

But you will never hear the very corrupt and incompetent Davis ever call out Red China for the very great role it plays in smothering our planet with greenhouse gases of the worst possible kind.

Would love nothing more than to hear Davis telling Communist Red China that it should be made by the global community to pay-off all of our national debt, and the national debt of many other nation's like ours. LMAO

moncurcool 1 year, 11 months ago

And yet you want to sell carbon credits to the very people causing the pollution? Is that not a contradiction?

Proguing 1 year, 11 months ago

What about compensation for Biden's inflation and reparations for slavery?

tribanon 1 year, 11 months ago

Translation: "We support your impending invasion of Taiwan".

sheeprunner12 1 year, 11 months ago

Did the political corruption since 1967 that piled up the 242 debt be explained away as "climatic change debt"?

This is as asinine as selling crypto or bio currencies.

Brave dem gatta try pull some fanciful rabbits out of the hat to solve this debt crisis

Bonefishpete 1 year, 11 months ago

The Great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 was the most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall on record in terms of pressure. That climate change has been a problem for a long time.

ColumbusPillow 1 year, 11 months ago

What climate change?

The_Oracle 1 year, 11 months ago

Politicians have so buggered up the worlds realities they are now inventing "virtual" problems to bugger up, hence further shielding themselves from the truth and harsh realities the General population face daily.

tribanon 1 year, 11 months ago

TALK ABOUT KISSING THE ARSE OF THE VERY EVIL AND SINISTER XI JINPING!

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of The Bahamas along with his counterparts from many other Caribbean nations recently met with Communist Red China officials to thank them for Communist Red China's long-term selfless assistance to the economic and social development of the Caribbean countries, especially the strong support for the response to natural disasters and the fight against the COVID pandemic.

And our Minister of Foreign Affairs (Fwreddy Boy Mitchell) and many of his counterparts from other Caribbean nations expressed their acknowledgement that Communist Red China is a reliable and important development partner of the Caribbean countries. They also firmly reaffirmed their adherence to the one-China policy and their support of Communist Red China in safeguarding its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Fweddy Boy Mitchell and many of his counterparts from other nations in the Caribbean region then went on to formally acknowledge that they fully appreciate Communist Red China’s upholding fairness and justice in international affairs and practicing genuine multilateralism, and their willingness to strengthen solidarity and cooperation with Communist Red China to jointly address global challenges such as climate change.

Small wonder we haven't had a U.S. Ambassador to The Bahamas since 2011. Fweddy Boy Mitchell has never had his head screwed on 'straight' (pun fully intended). LMAO

tribanon 1 year, 11 months ago

Translation: "We support your impending invasion of Taiwan". LOL

tribanon 1 year, 11 months ago

Simply pathetic!

This corrupt, incompetent and cruel leader of our elitist political ruling class is absolutely clueless about governing, but no doubt expert at running our country into the ground.

And now Davis shamelessly begs the world community for a reset of our unsustainable national debt to nil (zero) so that he and his cronies can then proceed to bankrupt our small nation all over again.

Even the very despicable and deplorable Minnis wasn't this stupid. My God, does this short fat man Davis really believe, as a Bahamian, that the world owes him something? What distant planet was he born on? He certainly doesn't seem Bahamian.

The Tribune