Newsweek Climate Week NYC Daily Show: Prime Minister Gaston Browne

In an exclusive interview with Newsweek, the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, called on rich nations to do more to help those “on the front lines of climate change.”

In 2017, Hurricane Irma destroyed 95 percent of homes in Barbuda. The cost to repair the damage was more than double the country’s GDP, according to the government.

“Large polluters have a moral and legal obligation,” according to Browne. “They must compensate small island states and other developing countries that suffer disproportionately from these climate events.”

Speaking on the Climate Week NYC Daily Show, made in partnership with Newsweek and Hi Impact, he called on developed countries to increase the billions of dollars already donated every year to help poorer nations deal with climate change. “They have a legal as well as a moral obligation to provide funding to adapt and to mitigate against climate change.”

“Every increase in temperature is like demanding payment from us—payments we cannot afford to make,” he said. “Our countries are among the least wealthy and least powerful, yet we suffer the most.”

Browne said the continued use of fossil fuels is undermining his country’s development and creating an “existential threat.”

“With climate and temperature rise, it results in increased droughts, more ferocious and frequent storms. The amounts that we have to spend to literally, adapt and to mitigate, we have had to divert from development funding that ordinarily would have been utilized to achieve the [Sustainable Development Goals]. We have to be using those to fight the effects of climate change.”

“We need a rebalancing, and we need to ensure that there is justice in the system and that small island states globally can enjoy shared prosperity just like the large states.”

The call comes as world leaders meet for the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, with climate change high on the agenda. A coalition of developing countries, including Antigua and Barbuda, is asking for the General Assembly to recognize a recent landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice, which unanimously found that countries have a duty to limit their emissions, or risk being in breach of international law.

“The principle of the polluter pays applies. What we are fighting for is climate justice.”

Newsweek is celebrating New York City’s 2025 Climate Week with events throughout the week. Pillars of the Green Transition will take place on September 24 and Powering Ahead: Innovations in Energy and Plastics Technology will take place on September 25. Both events will be held at Newsweek‘s global headquarters at One World Trade Center in New York City.