The Tribune

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis announced the launch of The Bahamas Sustainable Investment Programme yesterday, a new initiative that seeks to raise $500m in climate funding.

Mr Davis announced the fund while delivering remarks at the Clinton Global Initiative 2023 meeting in New York.

Highlighting the economic fallout from Hurricane Dorian and other storms, the prime minister underscored the need for more innovative solutions to help countries cope with climate change.

“A cruel irony is that those four massive hurricanes cost us billions – leaving us without the fiscal space we need to get ready for the next storms,” he said. “Topping the lists of countries most vulnerable to climate change makes borrowing more expensive. Every single day, we are paying for the hurricanes we’ve already suffered and the ones still ahead of us. “

“In addition, our nation’s middle-income designation leaves us unable to access fair and concessional financing for recovery and adaptation. This traps us in a cycle in which the servicing of our debt leaves very little to invest in building our resilience. We urgently need new and creative solutions to our climate financing.”

He said countries vulnerable to climate change can survive supercharged storms by creating “supercharged win-win investment partnerships”.

“With our strategic advisors, Resilience Capital Ventures, we will work with regional and global capital market leaders to underwrite and place an innovative financing facility with a target of $500 million US dollars.”

“Our priorities include climate-resilient infrastructure, our clean energy transition, coastal zone conservation, reducing biodiversity loss, regenerative agriculture, carbon sequestration, and participation in natural asset-backed carbon credit programmes.”

“Blended finance is a smart way to close the climate financing gap at a time when solutions cannot be postponed,” he said.

“Let me tell you one reason why I’m optimistic. Instead of saying ‘small island nation, say large ocean state. Our country’s seagrass meadows, which cover an astonishing 92,000 square kilometres, appear to be absorbing equal to or more carbon than the Amazon Rainforest.

“We have been mapping our seagrasses with the help of not just scientists but tiger sharks, who are a critical part of our underwater surveying team, wearing cameras and sending back data points. It’s always good to have apex predators on your side.”

Mr Davis welcomed the country’s partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative. He told world leaders the door was open for collaboration “whether you partner with us on funding and financing or by providing technical and advisory expertise”.

“There is indeed a path forward that will give my country many more tomorrows. We invite you to be part of it,” he said.