UN Headquarters, New York —September 25, 2025 …….Prime Minister the Honourable Gaston Browne addressed the First Biennial Summit for a Sustainable, Inclusive and Resilient Global Economy: Implementing Commitments on Financing Development, urging the international community to move “from promises to practice” and deliver scaled, fair, and timely finance—especially for Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
The Prime Minister noted that global growth of 2.5–3% and public debt at US$97 trillion are falling far short of what is needed to meet development and climate goals, while trade fragmentation, financial volatility, and worsening climate disasters erode confidence worldwide.
For SIDS, he said, instability is a lived reality: in 2024, climate-related disasters wiped out an estimated US$7 billion across small islands in a single season. With the IPCC warning that sea levels could rise up to one metre this century—and with tourism exceeding 40% of GDP in some islands—SIDS remain three times more vulnerable to shocks than the global average, often carrying 80–100% of GDP in public debt due to recovery costs and scarce concessional finance.
Prime Minister Browne said: “We cannot keep mortgaging our children’s future merely to survive today. The vision is not missing; the problem is implementation.”
Prime Minister Browne outlined concrete national steps to align words with delivery:
- Under the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS), the Government has established a Debt Sustainability Support Service (DSSS) to restructure debt and channel finance into resilience.
- The first DSSS transaction is targeted to close by March 2026.
- Beginning in 2026, climate-resilient debt clauses will be included in all new sovereign issuances by Antigua and Barbuda.
To unlock finance at the necessary speed and scale, the Prime Minister called on partners to:
- Expand concessional and grant finance through Multilateral Development Banks using vulnerability-based access, not income per capita alone.
- Adopt automatic disaster clauses so that debt service pauses immediately after catastrophes—“no pleadings while our people suffer.”
- Standardise state-contingent instruments—including climate-resilient clauses and debt-for-nature/resilience swaps—as mainstream tools, not pilots.
- Blend finance at scale, using guarantees and first-loss capital to crowd in philanthropy and private investment and lower costs.
- Fund pipelines, not one-off projects, with ready country-owned programmes in resilient infrastructure, clean energy, and adaptation.
“Let us measure success not by communiqués,” the Prime Minister added, “but by classrooms rebuilt, clinics powered, homes protected, and by debt trajectories bent toward sustainability.”
Antigua and Barbuda invited MDBs, IFIs, philanthropy and private capital to partner through blended-finance structures and guarantees. The Government confirmed that its pipeline of resilience, clean energy, and adaptation projects is ready for co-financing and rapid execution.
Advertise with the mоѕt vіѕіtеd nеwѕ ѕіtе іn Antigua!
We offer fully customizable and flexible digital marketing packages.
Contact us at [email protected]
