Vice-President Harris, Barbados’ PM Mottley, hold talks in Washington
US Vice President Kamala Harris welcomed Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley to Washington for talks on a range of issues Wednesday, including the ongoing pandemic and the climate crisis.
“I’d like to thank on behalf of, not just Barbados, but the Caribbean community, the donations made by the government and people of the United States of America with respect to the vaccines,” said Mottley.
“This battle is real for us in the Caribbean,” Mottley said, stressing the need for vaccine equity.
“We run the risk, as has happened with Delta and the other mutations, of other mutations coming to bear,” she said.
The Barbadian prime minister also looked ahead to the United Nations climate change conference in Scotland at the end of the month, saying, “As we go to Glasgow, there is a distinct risk, regrettably, that the world might not make the 1.5 degrees that we need to survive in the region.”
Representatives of more than 200 countries will gather for the conference, known as COP26, from October 31 to November 12.
The UN Secretary-General has three main goals for the conference, which is designed to ratchet up the Paris accord: Pledges that amount to a 45 per cent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, rich countries living up to their long-unfilled promises of $100 billion a year for poor countries to deal with climate change, and half that money going to adapting to warming.
Photo: (File) Prime Minister Mia Mottley