Global Energy Summit, Climate Week NYC 2025
Distinguished partners in progress,
It is good to be together today.
And I can’t help but think that me being here is also somewhat unlikely.
I grew up on one of what we call our Family Islands in The Bahamas – Cat Island, which just happens to be the most beautiful place on earth.
You’ll notice I didn’t temper my claim by allowing the possibility of rivals for that honour. I say only: come for a visit! See for yourself.
Now Cat Island may be small, that’s where I grew up, but that never stopped me from dreaming big.
However, addressing a room full of distinguished leaders, innovators, and investors about clean energy abundance – I admit this was well outside the scope of my then imagination.
And yet here we are – together because we share a sense of urgency — and a sense of possibility: We know a failure to create renewable energy abundance in the coming years could easily be catastrophic, but we see also that a future characterized by energy abundance can be one of great flourishing, a new era of progress in which we can all move forward together.
Many of you are working hard to create this future – and because of your work, clean energy technology is improving, and the competitiveness and economics of renewables are improving, too.
In The Bahamas, we initiated and are now overseeing my country’s first comprehensive, nationwide energy reforms – which is to say that I know firsthand the complexity of the challenges, and the blood, sweat and tears still required to overcome them.
We needed to modernize our country’s energy laws and regulations, we needed to take into account the diverse energy needs of a population scattered across an archipelago, we needed to upgrade our grid so that it can transmit solar energy – and we needed to confront the reality of energy generation itself, shifting away from near-total dependence on imported fossil fuels.
The International Monetary Fund has described our reform efforts as ambitious and positive, noting their potential to strengthen resilience and competitiveness while addressing long-standing vulnerabilities.
That independent validation reminds us that while the path is difficult, it is also the right one.
We are confident that energy reform will transform communities and our economy, but the path is not an easy one, and like everyone else, we will continue to navigate technical and supply chain challenges.
The biggest challenges for countries like ours, though, are financial. Four Category 4 and 5 hurricanes over the course of less than a single decade took billions out of our economy – making it difficult, ironically, to invest in our energy transition and in climate resilience.
We are carrying the burden of storms already endured while also paying for those yet to come.
The toll is not only measured in billions of dollars in damages, but also in the higher interest rates and insurance premiums that reflect the risk we live with every day.
These challenges are playing out in many nations. So how can we accelerate a global transition to renewable energy abundance? I want to suggest one important piece of the puzzle – which is to reframe climate debates.
We need to be the most passionate and effective evangelists for the proposition that energy reforms will expand our possibilities, not limit them. We need decision-makers everywhere to understand that replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy will not come at the expense of prosperity- in fact, climate progress is a prerequisite for future prosperity.
We will never unlock the full potential of clean energy abundance if the stories we tell focus on scarcity and sacrifice. Instead, let’s do a better job at painting a vivid picture – for your citizens, and for mine – of a future in which clean energy generates prosperity that is broadly shared.
Climate justice maintains its moral force – the clarity of who is responsible should never be left behind.
It remains true that countries like mine – we who have contributed the least to climate change – are suffering its worst impacts.
Yet we have seen the limits of what can be achieved when the climate story is focused too narrowly on blame.
Zero-sum moralizing – in which for me to win, you must lose – is counter-productive in a world in which citizens of even the wealthiest nations feel that the social contract is broken, and rising costs and diminishing opportunities are fueling a politics of rage.
If calls for climate justice are only demands for accountability about past wrongs, we will find it very difficult to create a more just future.
If we’re serious about unlocking trillions in public and private investment, we need to make sure ordinary people everywhere understand that a cleaner, healthier, less expensive future is within reach.
We can build a future with cleaner air and water, lower energy bills, health improvements, reduced climate migration, reduced dependence on imported fuels, food and water security.
When enough citizens in enough countries understand this, we make far more likely the policy and regulatory continuity that investors rightly seek. We can make the political costs of canceling or unwinding renewable energy gains so unpalatable as to be unthinkable.
If we invest in stories and get the message out just a fraction of what we invest in solar panels and turbines and batteries, we can bend the arc of history towards a time of renewable energy abundance.
If there is one lesson I hope you take from The Bahamas, it is that progress is possible even under the hardest conditions. We know the work of energy reform is complex, expensive, and at times overwhelming. Yet we also know that every panel installed, every regulation modernized, every grid upgraded, moves us closer to a world where energy abundance is real. The point is not perfection. The point is progress — and the belief that by working together, each step we take strengthens the chances of success for us all.
I’ll end where I began – with an invitation to Cat Island, so you can meet some of the best people, maybe sail our beautiful waters. You may choose to hike Mount Alvernia, which boasts an elevation of…not quite two hundred and ten feet, making it the highest point in The Bahamas. So
I conclude with gratitude for the progress we’ve made, and hope that much more will be made in the days to come.
