Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda delivered a passionate and uncompromising address at the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, urging world leaders to act with honesty and urgency to confront the escalating global climate crisis.

Speaking on behalf of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Prime Minister Browne warned that the 1.5°C limit to global warming, long regarded as the planet’s “lifeline”, is slipping out of reach due to the inaction of major polluters. He said the continued reliance on fossil fuels and weak global commitments are driving humanity toward “climate catastrophe.”

“For small island states, the climate crisis is not past tense or future tense; it is our lived reality” Browne told delegates. “We have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Yet large polluters continue to deliberately destroy our marine and terrestrial environments with their poisonous fossil fuel gases. We must stand as one and fight unrelentingly to stop this ecocide, to build economies that serve humanity, not just profits.”

The Prime Minister emphasized that the world has already reached 1.5°C of warming, the very threshold countries pledged to avoid under the Paris Agreement, but insisted that the fight to preserve it is far from over. He called for what he described as an “economic revolution,” urging a complete transformation in how nations produce, consume, trade, and invest to secure both human survival and planetary stability.

Browne underscored the human toll of climate inaction, pointing to the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa, which recently swept through parts of the Caribbean. “Loss and damage must be recognized as the unavoidable cost of inaction, the bill that nature is now presenting to humanity.  In Antigua and Barbuda, we know this pain. Hurricane Irma left our sister island Barbuda a mangled wreck in 2017, destroying lives and livelihoods overnight. Yet we rebuilt from the rubble with resilience and resolve.”

He urged immediate reform of the international financial system, arguing that small and vulnerable nations cannot continue to bear the burden of a crisis they did not create. “Climate finance is not charity; it is climate justice.” Browne declared.

 “Those who caused this crisis must lead in fixing it. We must move beyond outdated ODA rules and adopt the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index to direct support where it is most needed, toward mitigation, adaptation, recovery, and resilience.”

Prime Minister Browne also praised Brazil for hosting COP30 “In the heart of the Amazon, the lungs of the Earth,” and welcomed the launch of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility as “a bold symbol of global solidarity.”

Closing his address, Browne urged leaders to make COP30 a turning point for action rather than rhetoric. “At this COP of Truth, let us make this the moment when honesty met action, when ambition became transformation, and when climate justice moved from promise to practice. We will continue to fight unrelentingly to protect our planet and human civilization from extinction.”

COP30, held in Belém, Brazil, brings together nearly 200 nations in what many observers describe as a defining moment for global climate negotiations, with small island states like Antigua and Barbuda once again leading the charge for decisive and equitable action.