THE CARIBBEAN HAS A LEADER!

Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s address at the international climate change conference was the most sterling performance of a Caribbean leader in …well, as long as we could remember. 

Ms. Mottley spoke truth to power, staring down the world’s leaders and a captive global audience on the urgent environmental issues. 

She not only spoke for this region, but for all developing countries, and, in particular, endangered small island States. 

She was well researched, eloquent and had the courage of her convictions to expose misplaced priorities even as the world faces the “death sentence” of hotter temperatures. 

Ms. Mottley brought the rare bona fides as a Caribbean leader of sincerity and will. 

Just last week, she took on Barbadian commercial banks on their high charges, and threatened legislation if they did not back off. 

She spoke for all Caribbean people when she agonised: “The next thing we are going to hear is that the bank is going to charge you a fee depending on how skinny you are or how fat you are…” 

In Trinidad and Tobago, banks are recording historic billion-dollar profits while small and medium-sized businesses and homeowners are being crippled. 

The Central Bank, which is now virtually under the thumb of the Minister of Finance, has refused to act, even as businesses are shuttered and families lose their homes. 

In Barbados, Ms. Mottley said she told the Central Bank Governor if the banks did not act, “then the government will legislate because it is not fair to the people or businesses…” 

She took that toughness to the Climate of the Parties conference, even though Caricom has no known position on a crucial issue that is edging away coastal communities and causing other negative impacts. 

Trinidad and Tobago scrapped its Ministry of the Environment in 2015, and its climate change policies are well-kept secrets even though the experts warn of dangerously rising sea levels. 

Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley was Caricom’s titular leader for a year until last July. 

We could anticipate Rowley returning from the climate change conference with lofty jargon in the same way that Patrick Manning did after the 2009 version of the talks in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

But for now, Ms. Mottley is doing all the heavy lifting, representing the anxieties and ambitions of Caribbean people and proposing solutions before the world’s biggest names. 

Mia Mottley is a Caribbean leader!