What will undoubtedly be one of the most globally monitored international fora ever to be held under the auspices of the United Nations got underway yesterday, November 30. Preceding the commencement of the forum, Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, earlier this week sent a sobering message to the rest of Caribbean, asserting that the region’s contribution to the Dubai Forum will be focused on ensuring that the event delivers on the promises that were made by developed countries to provide financing to help tackle what he described as the “worsening climate situation.”
While the deliberations in Dubai are expected to center around familiar climate-related issues, including the unabated recovery and use of fossil fuels and its global environmental impact, Skerrit addressed the need for the Forum to yield outcomes that include “clear deliverables” for the region. Without those, he said, the staging of the Forum would amount to “a very unfortunate period for us in the developing world.” The Dominican Prime Minister alluded to what he described as his “misgivings” about the utility of such “conferences” arising out of which there had been “no practical action on the part of the developed world to help in addressing an existential threat to us in the Caribbean and small island states.” Contextually, Skerrit said that he intended to keep fighting for more equitable distribution of climate financing.
Skerrit told reporters that the lives of the people in the Caribbean are at risk adding that he intended to stay true to the pledge that he had made to his own country and the rest of the vulnerable countries in the region “to keep fighting for more equitable distribution of climate financing.” A measure of the importance with which the CARICOM delegation attaches to ensuring that the issue of climate financing is satisfactorily ventilated in Dubai is reflected in the fact that a delegation from the Caribbean Development Bank will be present at the Conference to help regional leaders make the case for more climate financing. Last week, the Bank issued a statement in which it said that it will seek to use the COP 28 Forum to “intensify its lobby for increased resources for Climate Action in the Region.”
CDB President Dr. Higinus “Gene’ Leon said in a statement that the Bank “will again join forces with partner organizations from the Region to push for more definitive global action to address Climate Change. Given our extreme vulnerability, it is vital that our voices continue to be heard before, during, and after COP as we grapple with the reality of using scarce national resources to adapt to the effects of climate change or recover from the loss and damage.” Additionally, Leon said that the Bank will “continue to use the platform the Conference provides to highlight matters of greatest concern such as the urgent need for increased climate finance under more favourable terms, the importance of considering countries’ resilience and vulnerability in climate finance allocation mechanisms, and the level of support required to accelerate the Region’s transition to Sustainable Energy and Green Trade.”
