Given her previous criticism, it was no surprise to hear Mia Mottley attack world leaders for rigged financial rules and for stalling on her Bridgetown Initiative when she addressed the Munich Security Conference — but she also took aim at a third, less obvious, threat to global south prosperity.
A new European Union law to tackle the world’s deforestation crisis has been hailed by environmentalists, but the Barbadian prime minister believes it will prevent “millions of people in Africa” from selling their products in the crucial EU market.
“You can't work good for the planet and do bad for the people. If people can't live, and people can’t have peace and the people can't have prosperity, then you have a barren planet,” Mottley told her largely European audience on Feb. 16.