The key facts

  • At COP31 in Antalya, Mia Amor Mottley called exceeding the 1.5°C target a 'heat debt' owed to future generations
  • She called for climate finance, debt relief for vulnerable countries and measurable methane commitments
  • According to her, nearly halving methane emissions by 2030 could prevent about 0.3°C of warming by the 2040s

Speech at COP31 in Antalya

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley spoke at the UN climate conference COP31, taking place in Antalya (Türkiye), and stated that the world is not doing enough to keep warming within 1.5°C. According to her, future generations will feel the consequences of delay. The Anadolu agency reported this.

The 'heat debt' and the price of delay

'Let me say it plainly: overshoot is not a new target. It is a debt — a heat debt, borrowed against our children's future — and it must be repaid,' the agency quoted Mottley as saying. She stressed that every fraction of a degree matters: further delays threaten coral reefs, food production, communities and livelihoods. As examples, she cited the floods in Nepal in August, which claimed more than 1,400 lives, as well as climate disasters in Jamaica, California and Europe. Touching on the situation in the Gaza Strip, she said that floods and humanitarian crises had created a 'real hell on earth' for children, adding that 'the climate does not negotiate with geopolitics.'

Demands to the conference

Mottley called for increasing climate finance, writing off the debts of vulnerable countries and boosting investment in clean energy. She also urged COP31 to adopt measurable commitments to reduce methane emissions: in her estimate, cutting them nearly in half by 2030 could prevent almost 0.3°C of warming by the 2040s and save 250,000 lives annually. In addition, she proposed a global '1.5 billion voices' movement to support the 1.5°C goal and called on citizens to demand accountability from governments and financial institutions. 'We need to do this before we meet at COP32 next year,' she said. The Prime Minister also thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the people of Türkiye for their hospitality in hosting the summit.