BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC-Prime Minister Mia Mottley says that her administration will establish a legacy fund to build the island’s capacity to finance climate resilience over the next six months.
Mottley was speaking on Wednesday at a ceremony to rename the historic Mutual Building on Lower Broad Street, Bridgetown, to The Dodridge Miller Economic and Justice Building, in honor of a long-standing executive of Sagicor, the owners of the building.
The Prime Minister declared that Barbados was “still in transformation mode” and the time had come to increasingly focus on tackling climate crises.
She said it was also critical that Barbados move beyond using only gross domestic product to measure economic growth. She added that building financial capacity was a significant component of dealing with the climate crisis.
“Financial capacity is critical. It is the oxygen,” she said. “In a climate-resilient world, just the pure focus on GDP will mean we are looking to put all our eggs in one basket. That cannot work.”
While not disclosing details of the legacy fund, she said a lot of the Government’s assets were undocumented, and the fund would help to change that; she also suggested that the earnings would be used in the fight against climate change.
A legacy fund uses investment earnings to meet specific community needs without touching the principal. This allows the fund to grow over time, generating more funding.
and then 