Climate Justice Front and Center at UNGA80: PM Browne Calls for Urgent Action

Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne took center stage at the start of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA80), pressing world leaders to treat climate justice as a matter of survival, not charity.

In a keynote address at Climate Week NYC 2025, Browne painted a stark picture of the existential threat facing small island developing states (SIDS). “Every degree of warming is an invoice sent to small islands—an invoice we cannot pay,” he warned.

He pushed for immediate capitalization of the Loss and Damage Fund, highlighted the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS), and urged recognition of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index to ensure fairer access to finance.

Later in the day, Browne met with the Green Climate Fund to demand more direct funding for SIDS projects, rejecting models that filter resources through costly intermediaries. “Climate finance must flow where it is needed most directly to the vulnerable,” he stressed.