In a little over a month’s time negotiators from around the world will gather in Paris to try to reach a final and globally binding agreement on a new treaty on climate change. It is no exaggeration to say that achieving this is of existential importance to the Caribbean.
The meeting, from November 30 to December 11, will be the largest since 2009 when a similar attempt in Copenhagen failed, only to be followed by recriminations between the developed world, advanced developing nations, and those countries most at risk, over who was to blame.
Since then the process has moved on and the positions of many nations, most notably the United States and China, have become closer. One general reason for this is that the two countries among many others have since the Copenhagen summit agreed to regulations, policies or laws that now enable them to make specific pledges on how they are going to cut greenhouse gas emissions, rather than the