LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The world is at war with climate change and resources must be deployed to the front lines urgently, said the Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, on Thursday at the UN Headquarters in New York. During a high-level meeting on climate and sustainable development, the premier of the small Caribbean island highlighted that Dominica exceeded expectations of its economic recovery after Hurricane Maria devastation in 2017 mainly thanks to new policies and initiatives designed to build climate resilience and sustainability.
Speaking to delegates to the United Nations, Mr Skerrit proposed three capacity-building solutions in areas that already bear the brunt of climate change. The first one is the development of straightforward financing of blue and green economy activities in small island developing states (SIDS). Another is a review of the “innovative financing” of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda which currently has limited application in SIDS and least developed countries. Lastly, the Dominican Prime Minister suggested creating a mechanism to exchange expertise in low-carbon technologies amongst countries in the Global South.
“The global population must see itself at war against climate change,” said PM Skerrit to UN delegates in New York on Thursday. “We must deploy human, technical and financial resources to the front lines. We must build capacity and resilience (…) [and] fight as a unified army.”
Two years earlier, he had pledged to make Dominica “the world’s first climate resilient nation”. Since then, the small island has implemented several bold initiatives guided by Dominicans’ green ethos. One of them is the construction of a geothermal plant that would supply nearly the entire population with clean energy. This is currently partly funded by the island’s world-leading Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme, which also supports numerous key economic sectors in Dominica, such as the expanding ecotourism industry.
Through the CBI Programme, highly-vetted foreign investors and their families can obtain Dominica’s valuable citizenship in exchange for a contribution to the Economic Diversification Fund or an investment in pre-approved real estate, which include eco-friendly resorts and hotels. To ensure the integrity of the Programme, Dominica runs each applicant through a carefully-elaborated, multi-tiered due diligence process. It also makes sure that the Programme operates in line with the highest international standards. A recent report by leading international tax advisory Ernst & Young dispelled the myth that citizenship by investment programmes may pose a risk to tax reporting, giving the example of Dominica’s citizenship not being relevant to obtaining tax residency.
Dominica runs its CBI Programme governed by the “Global Community” mindset. In the same community spirit, Dominica continues to invest heavily in sustainability. Another ambitious resilience-building project, entirely funded by Dominica’s CBI Programme, is the Housing Revolution, which aims to provide new, hurricane-proof homes for thousands of Dominicans.
CS Global Partners is the international legal advisory mandated by the Government to promote the Citizenship by Investment Programme worldwide.