who is Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados behind the Paris summit?

Whether it evokes global warming, the Covid-19 crisis or even “male pattern baldness”, the Prime Minister of Barbados never speaks to say nothing. Mia Mottley is the head of a small Caribbean island threatened with extinction due to rising waters and coastal erosion. Themes that she brings to the world debate and which have made her a listened figure.

Since time is running out, Mia Mottley, 57, has a conviction: we must reform the international financial system and demand financial reparations from the historical polluters that are the rich and industrialized countries of the North. His proposals, taken from the Bridgetown initiative which wants to move towards climate justice by strengthening funding for the countries of the South, are at the heart of the summit for a new global financial pact which ends on Friday June 23 in Paris.

At the origin of the Paris summit

“If I pollute your property, you expect me to compensate you”, she had already launched in November 2022 at the podium of COP27, in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt). For several years, and even more so after the last world climate conference, this lawyer by training has weighed in on international balances: she has thus worked in Egypt to create a fund for “losses and damage”, these reparations claimed from countries rich (mainly responsible for global warming) by poor countries (main victims of climate change). The idea of ​​the Paris summit, on the initiative of Emmanuel Macron, germinated in the head of state during the last COP27 under the impetus of Mia Mottley.

“We come to Paris today with heavy hearts but with hope”, launched Thursday in Paris the leader, who called for a “absolute transformation” of the financial system and not only “a reform of our institutions”. Her speech was expected as she got into the habit of using these spaces of overmediatization to use an offensive rhetoric. “What is striking is his eloquence and his mastery of subjects, trust in The Express Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, former minister and now director of the NGO ONE. She captivates the audience, without side effects, thanks to the solidity of her words and her innovative approach.”

In 2021, Mia Mottley concluded her speech at the United Nations (UN) with a reference to Bob Marley and his title Get Up Stand Up. “Who will stand up and stand for the rights of the people, for those who have died in this pandemic [le Covid-19], for those dying from the climate crisis, for small island states that need warming below 1.5°C to survive?”, she had shouted. And to add: “If we can solve highly complex problems like putting people on the moon or male pattern baldness, we should be able to solve small problems like hunger and poverty.”

Basically, the Prime Minister of Barbados wishes, through the examples of global warming and poverty, to make the voice of the countries of the South heard. In The worldshe mentioned in March the “polycrisis” that hits the planet and the North-South imbalance.

“The disparity between this handful of developed countries and the rest of the world is just too great. The planet is not a fair place and may never be. But we need to move towards some form of justice and fairness. equity.”

Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados

in an interview with the newspaper “Le Monde”

Erase the debt of underdeveloped states, set up a guarantee fund topped up by development banks and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), tax the profits of fossil fuel companies: the future will go through a fairer world, according to Mia Mottley. Barbados’ transition to republican rule in 2021, after centuries of subjugation United Kingdom (the country had already gained its independence in 1966), responds to this same objective.

In 2022, Mia Mottley was also re-elected as head of the government of Barbados. The same year, the magazine Time named her one of the 100 most influential people of the year, with these words: “Mia Mottley is an icon for her country and reminds us all to treat our planet with dignity.”