COMMON LOFTIER GOAL: Davis calls on CARICOM members states to unite against climate change

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis yesterday called on Caribbean countries to join forces to address the region’s existential threat of climate change during the CARICOM-SICA Summit on Climate Change.

Davis, along with a delegation, was in Belize for most of the week to attend the 33rd Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis gives an update on CARICOM’s position on the Russia-Ukraine conflict from Belize.

While addressing delegates of the Central American Integration System (SICA), he stated that climate change is at the forefront of his international agenda because it is existential for The Bahamas.

“The first step is to take the first step,” the prime minister said.

“We recognize that we face a global phenomenon brought on by global causes and need an international effort

“Yet, when it comes to the region, we are still acting individually.

“I do not underestimate the challenges of stepping up our levels of regional cooperation, but leadership requires us to try, try and try again.”

Davis pointed to the latest report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which included several stark warnings about the risks and impacts of the global problem.

One of those observations noted “the impacts of climate change on vulnerable, low-lying and coastal areas present serious threats to the ability of the land to support human life and livelihoods”.

The prime minister said the region must continue to call on polluters to reduce their carbon emissions and live up to the many years of unfulfilled promises to help the vulnerable.

We are experiencing the same hurricanes, the same rising sea levels, the same threats to our tourism industries.

– Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis

He further said the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp and humbling focus that “self-interest may well be more fully aligned with those who live like us — Small Island Developing States (SIDs); small economies with narrow economic bases; and small populations whose voices already resound loudly on the world stage, but not loudly enough to carry the argument”.

Davis added: “We are experiencing the same hurricanes, the same rising sea levels, the same threats to our tourism industries.

“We intend to push an agenda that includes a strong focus on solutions hoping that our common interests will help us narrow our ties and strengthen our bonds.

“We are already exploring several paths forward which we believe offer opportunities for regional and international cooperation.

“If we can come together to address the biggest, most existential threat facing humanity, then surely we can overcome some of the other obstacles which have historically prevented the region from working together more closely and more productively.

“This is a tomorrow worth fighting for.”

Ahead of the meeting, Davis had indicated that the issue of how to reduce and monetize the region’s carbon credits should be discussed and a policy formed among Caribbean countries, given that the region has the largest carbon sink in the world.

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