Mottley calls for debt relief for disaster-hit countries

Seigo­nie Mo­hammed

Cli­mate Change Ed­i­tor

seigo­nie.mo­[email protected]

An­talya, Türkiye: Bar­ba­dos Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley has sharply crit­i­cised the in­ter­na­tion­al fi­nan­cial sys­tem, ques­tion­ing why coun­tries most vul­ner­a­ble to dis­as­ters are of­ten re­quired to pay more to bor­row mon­ey, even as they strug­gle to re­build.

Her com­ments at COP31 in Türkiye car­ry a warn­ing for Trinidad and To­ba­go, where a ma­jor cli­mate dis­as­ter could leave the Gov­ern­ment fac­ing a cost­ly re­con­struc­tion bill while still hav­ing to meet its ex­ist­ing debt oblig­a­tions.

“Do you ever recog­nise that those who lend are paid the most, by those who are…