María Belén Moncayo

It was an honor to accompany Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda as he addressed #COP31 in Antalya, where I serve on the COP Presidency’s International Advisory Committee. We exchanged views on what is at stake for developing countries at COP31. We agreed that climate action is inseparable from development. For small island developing States, it is also a matter of security and survival. The decisions we take on emissions and climate finance will help determine whether future generations can continue to call their islands home. In 2024, governments adopted the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for Small Island Developing States. Delivering on it means cutting global emissions and ensuring that island nations can access predictable funding to protect their coastlines, build homes that can withstand the next hurricane, and respond to the loss and damage they face. @gastonbrowne

It was an honor to join Andorra’s Prime Minister Xavier Espot Zamora and Nobel laureate in economics Abhijit Banerjee at the @ParisPeaceForum for “On the Climate Frontlines: What Can Cooperation Still Deliver?” My thanks to Minh-Thu Pham for guiding our discussion. More than a decade after the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the climate emergency is also a crisis of political leadership. For communities already facing droughts and floods, the measure of international cooperation is whether finance reaches them in time to protect their homes and livelihoods. At #COP31, governments have an opportunity to rebuild trust by honoring their commitments. We need to reform climate finance so that vulnerable countries can invest in adaptation without taking on unsustainable debt, and accelerate a just energy transition that makes clean energy affordable and accessible. #PPF2026 @XavierEspot @M2Pham