Caribbean Countries go to COP 28 Seeking a Path Forward

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – If he has his way, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit will remain at home in Dominica, rather than travel to Dubai for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 28) that begins at the end of this month until December 12.

But, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) chairman is also a pragmatic person, who has equated attendance at the two week event to the stance taken by “our forefathers” who, despite the brutality of the slave trade, fought until emancipation was won.

“We ask ourselves should we go? Is it a waste of money to go? But you cannot give up on fighting against an injustice,” Skerrit argues,  not hiding his bitterness at the refusal of the developed countries to meet their commitments regarding climate change.

“And so it is an injustice that we will continue to fight,” he added.

Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell says regional countries need not be apologetic in getting the developed world to meet their commitment in dealing with the impact of climate change.

“What our foreparents had the privilege of enjoying 40 or 50 years ago we do not have that privilege. And so the question is do we continue along that line or do we fight?

“We have to be passionate about this, perhaps even angry about the issue because if we accept that 20 per cent of the world has caused this, and if we accept that same 20 per cent of the world controls 85 per cent of the GDP (gross domestic product) then the question is why should me, you and us…continue to quietly, slowly watch our way of life slip by, while those who created the industrial revolution …continue to enjoy the high standard of living,” said Mitchell, who is also an attorney.

Bahamas Prime Minister Phillip Davis has told his regional colleagues that it makes no sense shooting arrows at “new targets, when the bullseye of two decades before has yet to be hit.

“As COP28 approaches, it is crucial that we, the developing countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis, hold the developed world to account. Whether they honour their commitments could mean the difference between a mere disturbance and another Dorian – that devastating Category 5 super storm, the likes of which my country had never seen and is still recovering from,” he added.

Caribbean countries remain hopeful that COP 28,which will also be attended by Britain’s King Charles III and US President Joe Biden, will deliver, at the very least, several major political outcomes, including an ambitious mitigation work programme that will see developed countries and major economies submit enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) aligned to the 1.5 pathway.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) makes it clear that without steep cuts aligned to a 1.5 pathway, the situation will worsen.

In addition, the region also wants a global stock take that will provide an opportunity that keeps alive the promise of Paris as well as assess the adequacy of adaptation efforts and the financing, capacity-building, and technology transfer that the Paris Agreement is to deliver.

In addition, CARICOM countries want the operationalization and capitalization of the Loss and Damage fund that will provide critical climate finance to the most vulnerable countries who are ravaged by the adverse impacts of climate change.

When he visited the Caribbean in August, Caribbean countries made it clear to Dr Sultan Al Jaber, the president-designate of COP 28 what they expected from the event with his help.

“The Caribbean is one of the most vulnerable regions of the world; climate change, for us in the Caribbean, is an existential threat. We are on the front lines of the climate crisis, suffering from the ravages of climate change that is not of our making,”  Skerrit told Al Jaber, adding that the scientific imperative is clear and the global community needs to cut emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.

“The political leadership required, however, to deliver at the scale and speed necessary, is lagging. Despite the geopolitical challenges being experienced across the globe, we cannot let up on pursuing ambitious climate actions.

“As the COP28 president-designate, we in the Caribbean will count on your leadership to ensure that COP28 is a COP of action. COP28 must deliver actions that are commensurate with ensuring that we keep 1.5 alive. Our lives and that of our children and their children depend on it,” added Skerrit.

Developed countries have in the past spoken about establishing a US$100 billion fund to assist developing countries to deal with the impact of climate change, but  CARICOM believes “the new estimate really is US$2.3 trillion”.

The Caribbean Small Island Development States (SIDS) are some of the most vulnerable countries to climate change impacts which will become critical if no appropriate action is taken. Global warming, sea level rise, increased intensity and frequency of tropical cyclones, storm surges and droughts, as well as changing precipitation patterns, and coral bleaching are critical threats to SIDS.

For example, among the 29 Caribbean SIDS, 22 were affected by at least one Category 4 or 5 tropical storm in 2017 with an estimated cost of US$93 billion.

But the region has been warned that they would need to temper their expectations. The former senior Grenada government minister, Simon Stiell, who is now the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) Secretariat, has said a “gargantuan level of finance” would be required to implement the Paris agreement.

On December 12, 2015, at  the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) parties to the UNFCCC reached a landmark agreement to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future.

The Paris Agreement builds upon the Convention and – for the first time – brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so. As such, it charts a new course in the global climate effort.

Developed countries first in 2009 and again in 2015 under the Paris climate agreement, agreed to a collective goal of US$100 billion a year in grants, loans, private sector investments and more by 2020. However, more than a decade after the first pledge was made, nations have yet to meet their promise.

Stiell said that while there has been “a lot of talk about the 100 billion dollars that’s supposed to be delivered this year per year for developing countries, the amount that is actually required is….six trillion dollars” in order to reduce global emissions by 2030 and that’s “what the global community will need to find and that’s just to implement our nationally determined contributions (NDC).

“This obviously is not just limited to the financial trust issues, we have within our process over areas such as the 100 billion dollars or the doubling of adaptation finance, but without urgent action to reset the global financial framework we are not going to reach the climate goals that are set for us.

“The finance that we are seeking is not going to come from traditional sources. Those coffers, those public monies from developed countries are being channeled to other priorities  right now,” he said, arguing that climate change is competing with those other “local priorities”.

The Declaration issued at the end of the two-day summit of the European Union and the Community of Latin American and the Caribbean States (EU-CELAC) in Brussels in July, contained “wide-ranging agreements” concerning all the major contemporary issues confronting both regions.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, the CELAC pro tempore president, said that on the issue of climate change, the Declaration notes  “we stress the importance to fulfil the commitment by developed countries jointly to mobilise promptly US$100 billion per year for climate finance to support developing countries …”

But he recalled a promise had been made in Stockholm dating back to 2009 and “we should start something by 2020. Nothing has happened.

“I know it is good for journalists to be cynical…but there is great promise here and I think we should not suspend our judgement as to what is here, but to hold us and particularly the Europeans in this case…to hold their feet to the fire.

“I mean it would be an awful thing if you write that in paragraph 23 (of the Declaration) and then in 2025 you see no money. That will be a hell of a thing. Then your cynicism will be justified,” Gonsalves added.

Guyana is the first country to deploy large-scale carbon on the international market as the CARICOM country seeks to advance its climate security. It is the first country to sign an end-user agreement with Hess Corporation, and a bilateral agreement on the sale of carbon with the Kingdom of Norway.

Guyana’s forest, which is the second-largest forest cover globally, stores 19.5 gigatonnes of carbon and the country has released its Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030, which is an enhanced version of the LCDS 2009, taking into account a number of local and international developments that focus on investments in clean energy to stimulate low-carbon growth, protection against climate change and biodiversity loss.

Last December, the government and Hess Corporation announced an agreement for Hess to purchase high-quality carbon credits for a minimum of US$750 million between 2022 and 2032.

But Caribbean countries continue to argue that incremental progress is no longer enough. They acknowledge that taking small steps when big steps are needed would be a mistake too costly to bear, even as they recognise a growing push to deliver reforms from the Bridgetown Initiative.

Ahead of COP 27 in Glasgow, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, announced the Bridgetown Initiative, a political agenda for reform of the global financial architecture and development finance in the context of three intersecting global crises, namely debt, climate, and inflation.

It proposes that an automatic debt suspension in the case of an emergency be included in all lending going forward—but this needs to be applied to all debt, retroactively and across the board, in order to make a real difference.

Last Thursday, the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) announced plans to  establish a Climate Change Project Preparation Fund to assist its borrowing member countries (BMCs) in identifying and developing viable proposals to access climate finance, from the bank and other international donor organisations.

The CDB said despite significant vulnerability and considerable needs, Caribbean countries have had limited success in securing funding for climate action initiative, noting that among the obstacles are the extensive prerequisites and project preparation necessary to qualify for concessional finance from development partners and multilateral climate funds.

“Right now, climate finance flows to the Caribbean pale in comparison to the needs of the region and a major barrier is the challenges we face putting together viable proposals because the process can be resource-intensive, and it can require specialised expertise.” said  Valerie Isaac, CDB’s Division Chief, Environmental Sustainability.

She said the CDB’s Climate Change Project Preparation Fund will provide resources to develop and implement climate action projects which will enable the Region to mobilise climate finance at a much greater level.

When she addressed the United Nations General Assembly in October, Mottley said the fight against climate change is far from over, adding that it is as much of a crisis as the war in Ukraine and the ongoing conflict in Africa.

“We are committed to resume the battle of saving people and the planet,” she said.

But as Stiell pointed out, “the geopolitics that surrounds the climate agenda, which is east versus west, global north versus global south has never been as fractured and as inflammatory as we have now going into this COP.

”It has never been this tricky…but we have to find a path forward,” he added.