PM Browne labels per capita income as nonsensical

Prime Minister Gaston Browne is reiterating the call to developed countries to cease using use per capita income, which he labelled, a “nonsensical criteria,” when deliberating on how much assistance is needed following natural disasters.
In a passionate speech at Sunday’s Caribbean Strong Relief Concert and Telethon, Browne said developed nations in the western hemisphere have an “obligation” to make substantial contributions to Barbuda and Dominica.
“It is inappropriate for you to use these artificial impediments to say that Barbuda, in a time of crisis, is not deserving of your assistance,” Browne said.
Adding that, “It is absolutely ridiculous for the developed world to take positions that they cannot help Dominica because they are too wealthy.”
The live broadcast of the event reached thousands, and Browne used the platform to ask world leaders to scrap that criteria and “live up to your climate obligation” and contribute to the rebuilding.
He explained that it is those countries that have an obligation to contribute because of their “prolificacy in the use of fossil fuels [that are] warming the earth.”
Browne and scientists agree that this climate risk makes global temperature targets largely unattainable, and that point was enforced in a timely report from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), which stated that warming seas increase the power and frequency of storms.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)