Hon. Shawn Edward, Minister for Education, Sustainable Development, Innovation, Science, Technology and Vocational Training in Saint Lucia made an impassioned plea on the global stage of COP27 in Sharm El Sheik Egypt, for Small Island Developing States to receive climate financing for loss and damage due to the effects of climate change.
Minister Edward made his address during a high-level COP27 panel discussion today, November 10, which included H.E Nino Tandilashivili, Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Environment and Agriculture of Georgia, and H.E Aminath Shauna, Minister of Environment, Climate Change, and Technology in the Republic of Maldives.
The panel discussed the issues developing countries face as a result of climate change, and the financing needed to address them.
Developing countries have faced mounting pressure during this United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) to make financing available to countries facing the most severe impacts of climate change, yet are the lowest emitters of greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide being the primary one emitted through human activity.
Minister Edward told the gathering that a few days ago, Saint Lucia faced an unprecedented storm on a scale which persons had not experienced in a lifetime.
“Homes were damaged, vehicles were floating in the streets like paper, schools were impacted and the initial assessment we were estimating was somewhere in the region of 6-8 million dollars, and all of this happened in approximately the space of three hours. These are weather systems that visit us in Saint Lucia and the Caribbean with a degree of frequency that we have not seen before and everytime they come, they leave us in tatters. We have to find resources to build back, to reconstruct.”
Twelve years ago in Copenhagen, developed countries pledged $100 Billion annually to less wealthy nations to mitigate and adapt to rising in global temperatures. However, this promise has not been kept, thus every year, the frustration of world leaders increases as their countries deal with the adverse effects of violent hurricanes, extreme flooding, and extreme drought. These new phenomena have given rise to food security issues, increased national debt – as countries borrow money to recover from these cataclysmic events – and loss in GDP.
Edward lamented that “every year, at every forum, at COP, at UNEA, you will hear the global pronouncements being made time and against that there are monies being pledged for Small Island Developing States, but it never reaches our treasury. And when proposals are written and submitted to the International financial agencies for support, there is always an inadequacy in the proposal you submit.”
Climate change poses steep challenges to Small Island Developing States in the OECS, and regional leaders are constantly seeking means to overcome them, build resilience in their economy and advocate for international, regional, and local policy that will ensure their survival for future generations.
SOURCE: Department of Sustainable Development. Headline photo: Shawn Edward (Stock image)
Nothing more than a copy and paste statement. We will continue to sell our stateman ship for received little with very poor negotiating skills. I am not saying our region is not impacted by those who rape our environment and think money can buy it all. Realistically the money mogul nations along with who can print money to buy you out are the most shameful set of nations who are trying to portray that they are doing their best. It is generally a sad state of affairs globally because those who fostering climate change now realized they are the benefactors of the bitter end of the stick because the origin population are converting those into value added product to become independent rather than being interdependent.
No amount of money, the god of this world, will ever solve governments wastefulness, DCA poor planning, political interference and nepotism, human beings greed and desire to rule each other to our own detriment. These are the last days of human history and everything we are seeing is going to get worse
As for our ability to clean up our own mess, put no faith in earthling man, for he is the cause of the problem, like the UN, the G7, 8 or 20, science that plays God, weaponizing the climate, food, water, crashing economies and unleashing climate chaos. The Most High will destroy those ruining the earth.
The COP is just a waste. Every year it fails to deliver anything. Every year heads come up on stage with fancy speeches and after that it is forgotten until next year. Did they took in what Mia Mortly said last year? Apparently not if every year heads waste time and money to attend these fancy events and only come out with excues. The war in Ukraine may be causing more damage to the climate but the west continue to finance it. China is shooting clouds to get rain. Will that not in some way affect climate pattern? Fashion houses keep dumping fashions into the ocean. What is the point of this COP when we have not deliver anything from the previous years.
You mean Shawn Edwards gone after new lotto money? no thinking person is surprised at that.