Caribbean Countries Urged to Voice Concerns Over Rising Global Warming

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Caribbean Community (CARCOM) countries are being urged to voice their concerns in support of the Paris Agreement to maintain the 1.5 degrees as the limit in global warming until the end of the century.

CARCOM leaders are entering the final day of their three-day summit on Friday and the issue of climate change, in particular, where global warming reached 1.55 degrees last year, had been discussed during their deliberations on Thursday.

Well placed sources told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the regional leaders were told that in the area of climate change there is a “solid common doctrine” with a total commitment to the Paris Agreement, an international treaty that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming. It was adopted in 2015 and came into force in 2016.

According to the sources, the summit has been told that regional countries need t maintain “total commitment” to the 1.5 degrees as the limit in global warming until the end of the century.

However, the regional leaders were urged to accelerate effort to ensure that this international position is maintained.

They said for  example that last year, the world recorded temperatures of  1.55 degrees with a warning that there will be other possibilities of being above 1.5 degrees.

The CARICOM leaders were told  what is needed is a strategy that guarantees that the region’s efforts to be able to maintain the limit to the end of the century are intensified as have been decided in the Paris Agreement.

They were told that the National Determined Contributions (NDC) will probably not be enough and that efforts are being made to have Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the CARICOM chair, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, to undertake several initiatives.

These include writing to the 35 biggest emitters, and not only appealing for them to have their NDCs fully aligned with 1.5, but to have them covering the whole of the economies, covering all greenhouse gases, and then putting staff at their disposal to discuss the details about the level of reduction of emissions that would be necessary.

There are also efforts to have President Lula and Mottley to have a meeting with a selected number of biggest emitters, virtually, and also have on NDCs either a session during the United Nations General Assembly or in another moment together with the presidents of the Conference of the Parties (COP) the supreme decision-making body of the Convention.

But the regional leaders were told that they should voice their concerns  in relation to the other countries that are the most problematic countries in ensuring that they have NDCs in line with 1.5 degrees.

The  Caribbean was also asked to take advantage of the situation in developing their NDCs and create a much stronger autonomy namely in relation to renewable energy and other aspects in keeping with the decision for developed countries to double their adaptation contributions, which the sources told CMC “are minor, minor resources compared with the needs”.

They said it needs to be  implemented to make sure that, the, Loss and Damage Fund “really is a serious thing”.

The sources said that a lot of bureaucratic things have been done until now to put it to work, but the money has not yet appeared and that as of Thursday this week, the amounts that were pledged, is an estimated US$700 million.

The sources said the funds pledged so far could force the countries to find new sources of funding given that official development assistance (ODA) is dwindling, taking note of the new position being adopted by the United States with all their development and humanitarian programs.

The Caribbean leaders was reminded that one of the initiatives of Biden administration was in methane, which is a very important component in climate warming and that maybe the Donald Trump administration will be interested in allowing the initiative to go on.

The sources said that the leaders were urged to keep an open mind and maintain a clear determination to seize all opportunities for areas of cooperation that may contribute in reaching the objectives of the region and that is the need to stop global warming and the need to create the conditions.