According to the Barbados Today website, the agreement was announced following talks between the organization’s commissioner for international associations, Jutta Urpilainen, and the Caribbean country’s Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, at the Paris Peace Forum.
The initiative, he added, is in line with the investment agenda of the European Global Gateway Strategy (to promote smart, clean and secure connections in different sectors and countries around the world), which was launched at the EU-Latin American Community Summit Caribbean states was presented in July. last.
Small island developing states are paying the highest price for their exposure to natural hazards and Barbados is taking a decisive step towards a greener and more sustainable future, Urpilainen said, pointing to the vulnerability of these countries caused by the industrialization of the developed world.
For his part, Mottley emphasized the need for new levels of partnership to address the many challenges of the climate crisis.
“EU support under Global Gateway underlines how such a partnership can accelerate important investments and support vulnerable populations at a crucial time in our history,” he said.
In his view, “this innovative financing structure, the world’s first for resilient infrastructure, can provide a new pathway that allows climate-vulnerable states to accelerate critical adaptation investments in a way that does not threaten the public’s debt dynamics.”
The announced partnership will enable the government to issue around €276 million in debt equivalents structured as sustainability-linked bonds or loans.
According to the news site, the EU would provide a guarantee of 140 million euros through the European Investment Bank, while the Inter-American Development Bank would provide another guarantee of the same amount.
mv/las