Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has been named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2022.
Mottley, Barbados’s first female prime minister, joins the ranks of US President Joe Biden and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the 2022 list, which was announced on Monday. The yearly index celebrates pioneers across various industries, acknowledging their contributions and achievements.
In the Time profile on Mottley, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the director-general of the World Trade Organization, described her as “bold, fearless, and possessing a great intellect and wit” and as a “brilliant politician who knows how to shake things up”.
Time editor-in-chief and CEO Edward Felsenthal said, “In a speech heard round the world, Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados and a voice for countries on the front lines of climate change, made clear the intersection between environmental action and equity.”
“@miaamormottley is an embodiment of our conscience, reminding us all to treat our planet and therefore one another with love, dignity, and care,” writes Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (@NOIweala) #TIME100 https://t.co/HuMRgPMnZr pic.twitter.com/DsNieGB1Qt
— TIME (@TIME) May 23, 2022
Felsenthal was referring to Mottley’s urgent call for action at last year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland. She lamented, in her speech, that two degrees is a death sentence for island nations as she addressed the climate change summit.
In November last year, Mottley also led the charge to remove Queen Elizabeth II as the head of state of Barbados, which has become a republic.
Two months later, Mottley was re-elected in a landslide victory.
Mottley is featured in Time’s ‘Leaders’ list. Other lists on magazine’s rollcall of influential people are ‘Artists’, ‘Innovators’, ‘Pioneers’ ‘Icons’ and ‘Titans’.
According to her official government profile, Mottley is an attorney-at-law with a degree from the London School of Economics, specialising in advocacy. She is also a barrister of the Bar of England and Wales.
She was elected to the Parliament of Barbados in September 1994, as part of the new Barbados Labour Party Government.
“Prior to that, she served as one of two Opposition Senators between 1991 and 1994. One of the youngest persons ever to be assigned a ministerial portfolio, Ms. Mottley was appointed Minister of Education, Youth Affairs and Culture from 1994 to 2001. She later served as Attorney General and Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados from 2001 to 2008 and was the first female to hold that position,” the profile stated.
Another Bajan, Grammy award winning singer Rihanna, was featured on Time‘s ‘Artist’ list in 2018.
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