CMC-Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell Tuesday said that Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries do not regard their presence at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) “as a trip that is fun”.
Speaking at a news conference after heavy rains over the past few days caused widespread floods and damage in Grenada, Mitchell, who last week addressed the ongoing COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, said the presence of the regional countries was necessary to deal with the impact of climate change.
He said he never expected that while speaking at COP29, which ends on Friday that, “I would be seeing pictures of my own son standing on top the desks as a result of the flooding” at his school.
“But I think it brought home graphically to the international community, this is not a joke, we are not coming to COP because we want to or we think it is a trip that is fun. We are really there to advocate for fairness in the climate financing system to address the significant challenges that we dealing with.”
Mitchell, who is also the current chairman of the regional integration movement, CARICOM, told reporters that leaders are given three minutes to speak at COP with at least half a minute taken up exchanging pleasantries and thanking the host.
“We were very direct that we are asking for partnerships and that is financial partnerships to treat with the challenges that we face as a result of the climatic events,” he said, adding that the regional countries have spoken about the loss and damage fund.
“That fund should be properly funded and should be available for us to respond to the obvious loss and damage as in Grenada’s case that we are facing as a result of the climatic events,” Mitchell said.
But he acknowledged the need to appreciate “that these thigs take a lot of will power, an enormous amount of advocacy…to get the big countries, the G20 countries, the major polluters and emitters to in fact fund and fund in a transparent and easily accessible manner.
“Often times the funds are pledged but they are pledged in very sophisticated complex agencies that are located, for example, the Green Climate Fund, in Korea, or in Europe, or in North America.”
He said as a result, Caribbean and other small island developing states (SIDS) do not have the opportunity to have direct access.
“You have to be accredited, the procurement process for projects takes a long time,” he said, noting that “ are hoping that coming out of COP that there are larger pledges and more importantly actual funding of the loss and damage find and that the rules pertaining to how monies will be disbursed will be directly based on a compensatory basis for small island developing states that have suffered loss and damage.”
When COP28 officially launched the Loss and Damage Fund, early pledges from countries like the United Arab Emirates, Germany, the United States and Japan raised US$700 million, a mere 0.1 per cent of the US$671 billion.
The aim of the Loss and Damage Fund is to provide financial assistance to poorer nations as they deal with the negative consequences that arise from the unavoidable risks of climate change – for example: rising sea levels, extreme heat waves, desertification, forest fires, crop failures
Mitchell said while in Baku, he also used the opportunity to engage in bilateral discussions with several partners, including China “to be able to impress upon them that outside of the multilateral system that on a bilateral level they can also provide assistance to small island developing states to address issues like energy transition, which we need to do to have energy security which is part and parcel of this entire climatic situation.
Mitchell said Azerbaijan as the host was very supportive of SIDS in areas like food security and that he visited a greenhouse owned by a private investor who is keen on investing in Grenada.
He said such an investment would be welcomed in Grenada, noting that the old traditional way of growing for example, tomatoes on the ground right now in a low-lying area would be washed away because of the floods.
“With greenhouses you could actually elevate off the ground…and you need significant level of flooding to reach the plots of land, no larger than a shoe box in which the tomatoes are grown in…
“So bringing technology, sustainability and resilience to our farming will be critical to address our food security,” Mitchell said, noting that farmers on the west coast have suffered significant losses as a result of the rains and floods.
He said it was necessary therefore for SIDS to stick together “so we could have greater impact and greater voting power within the multilateral space where we are negotiating”.
