Prime Minister, the Hon. Philip Davis is currently leading the Bahamian delegation to COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.  On Wednesday Mr. Davis addressed a leaders summit at the conference on climate financing.

He said, “even as we have reached agreement at the United Nations on a multidimensional vulnerability index we have yet to see international financial institutions commit to its use.  Grants for adaptation take to long to access and are insufficient to meet the scale of our climate resilient development needs.  We implore bilateral and multilateral partners to scale up resources for adaptation and loss and damage and to ensure that SIDS (Small Island Developing States) can assess these funds at scale quickly without excessive and costly bureaucracy and in the form of grants.”

The Prime Minister called for 70% of climate finance to be directed for adaptation for SIDS.  “This is not a request but a necessity.  Adaptation is our right, our right to prepare and to protect.  Furthermore, the loss and damage fund must become a tool of immediate relief not a maze of red tape. Bureaucratic delay is an injustice to every community left exposed and unprepared.  We do not seek favors, we seek fairness,” Mr. Davis said.

COP29 ends on November 22nd.