The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis  renewed his call for global collective action on climate change, emphasising its severe impact on Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

Addressing the Leaders’ Summit of SIDS on Climate Change, Mr Davis said: “Our people have a right to survival. They have a right to pass down to future generations a world better than the one they inherited.”

He warned that this fundamental right is under growing threat from the worsening climate crisis and urged nations, particularly those most vulnerable, to unite and take decisive action.

“We, the nations most at risk, do not have the luxury to retreat,” he said. “The moment demands courage, vision, and a shared commitment to hold hands and confront together the fierce challenges that lie before us.”

Highlighting the escalating frequency of climate-related disasters — heatwaves, droughts, floods, hurricanes, and fires — Mr Davis pointed to these as clear signs of a global climate emergency. “These are not mere coincidences. They are warnings, the earth’s way of showing us the high cost of inaction,” he said, stressing the urgency of recognising these events as interconnected alarms rather than isolated incidents. “Every storm, every fire, every flood cries out that time is running out, and yet some choose to look the other way.”

Mr Davis called for 70 percent of climate finance to be directed towards adaptation efforts, noting that adaptation is vital for the survival of vulnerable nations. “Adaptation is our right — to prepare, to protect, to persist,” he stated. He also emphasised the need for the Loss and Damage Fund to operate swiftly and efficiently, free from bureaucratic obstacles, to deliver timely relief to affected communities.

“Justice demands that the polluter should pay, not those who bear the burden of the pollution!” Mr Davis said, pressing global leaders to choose action over inaction. “We are faced with a choice: to act with boldness and unity or to let fear and inertia decide our fate. Let us not be remembered as those who turned away in the hour of need, but as those who came together to fight for a world that honours the right to survival.”