The small island that wants to reshape the IMF and the World Bank to fight climate change

"We think we have a plan," Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley told world leaders gathered for COP27 in Egypt in November.

This small Caribbean state, exposed to the passage of hurricanes and threatened by rising sea levels caused by climate change, has become the main advocate for the reform of international economic institutions.

His plan, known as the Bridgetown Initiative - named after the country's capital - plans to use the IMF to turn "billions into trillions" of investments to reduce CO2 emissions, also with taxes on fossil fuel companies to cushion climate-related economic shocks.

The debate is sure to come to the spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) next week. Paris also hopes to advance reforms by hosting a summit for a "new financial pact" on June 23.

These proposals are still being debated but are gaining traction among the more developed nations that are making the cut at the IMF and the World Bank.

The latter is particularly under pressure to do more for the climate, an area in which outgoing President David Malpass – appointed on the proposal of Donald Trump – has been criticized for his lack of voluntarism.

"New War"

"I feel we have an opportunity," Avinash Persaud, who leads the Barbados campaign with "one and a half employees and an Excel spreadsheet," told AFP.

The so-called Bretton Woods institutions were created to help rebuild countries devastated by the Second World War by encouraging trade and development.

"If we combine all the crises we are facing today, we have the impression of emerging from a new war", notes the Cameroonian economist Vera Songwe.

The climate crisis is "most critical" and "influences every aspect of global economic development", she said.

However, multilateral institutions have not stood idly by. The IMF, for example, has set up a fund to encourage the resilience of low- and middle-income countries - and of which Barbados was the first beneficiary.

But critics say that's not enough. A group of independent experts commissioned by the UN and co-chaired by Vera Songwe estimated last year that it would take more than 2.000 billion dollars a year to respond to the climate crisis.

"Money on the Table"

Barbados is proposing to use the IMF's Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) - a reserve asset - to back a new climate fund, which could borrow cheaply and invest in carbon reduction projects.

It also asks multilateral banks to increase their loans, preferably with a clause to freeze repayments for two years in the event of an extreme weather event.

Finally, the plan assumes taxation – for example on financial transactions or the profits of fossil fuel companies – to help countries deal with climate damage.

The NGOs have on the whole welcomed these ideas, even if they want the question of the cancellation of debts to be put on the table - just like an acknowledgment of the historic responsibility of the rich polluting countries.

"Until there is money on the table, we will not be able to solve the climate crisis", judge Harjeet Singh of the Climate Action Network (CAN).

Although Barbados is considered relatively prosperous by other poorer countries, Avinash Persaud hopes to be able to build a broad coalition of countries - weighing some 40% of the world's population - in favor of progress in taking account of climate issues. .

“It will change the world for these 3,2 billion people,” he enthuses.