Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister advocates for climate justice in Australia

Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne is participating in the Global Citizen NOW: Perth Summit in Western Australia to demand stronger climate financing and accountability for vulnerable small island nations. During a high-level discussion titled “The Cost of Complacency,” Browne is expected to highlight the economic and human devastation caused by extreme weather, citing the impact of Hurricane Irma on Barbuda and Hurricane Maria on Dominica.

Browne is advocating for the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index, arguing that national income is an insufficient metric for a country’s ability to recover from repeated climate-driven disasters. His efforts come ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua and Barbuda and the upcoming COP31 negotiations.

In related climate diplomacy, COP31 president-designate Murat Kurum, the Turkish climate change minister, stated at a pre-COP summit in Fiji that wealthy nations should prioritize climate crisis spending over defense budgets, asserting that “the climate issue is the security issue.”