IPCC scientists declare we now have to both adapt to and mitigate climate change
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The Our Islands Our Future coalition this week renewed its call for a nationwide permanent ban on oil drilling in The Bahamas, following the recent United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which was published on February 28, 2022.
The coalition directly tied the future well-being of The Bahamas to decisions the country makes regarding carbon emissions and especially offshore oil drilling in the context of a national ban.
The IPCC Working Group 2 report, “Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability”, which focused on an assessment of the impacts of climate change at global and regional levels, also reviewed the vulnerabilities and capacities and limits of the natural world and human societies to adapt to climate change.
A further report by Working Group 3 is expected in April and will bring additional focus on societal actions to prevent rapid changes in atmospheric carbon.
However, the coalition said the overarching conclusion is already clear: society must reduce emissions drastically in the next decade to avoid catastrophic impacts by the end of the century.
Rashema Ingraham of Waterkeepers Bahamas, a coalition member, said: “With the urgent timeline given by the UN, it is clear this is the wrong time for The Bahamas to even think about oil production.
“Our future as a small island nation requires us to do everything we can to avoid a climate catastrophe, and we can show the world by banning oil drilling in our waters.”
Chris Wilke of Waterkeeper Alliance, a coalition member, said: “The door is barely still open to limit climate change to manageable levels.
“The science is clear, impacts are occurring all around us, but if we wait, we will lose the opportunity to meet this challenge and instead will trigger far worse outcomes.”
The coalition cited the IPCC report’s warnings of triggering dangerous feedback loops, such as warming temperatures that could melt arctic permafrost, which in turn would unleash even more warming, likely making a human-engineered recovery nearly impossible.
For this reason, the coalition urged the government of The Bahamas to consider implementing an immediate ban on offshore drilling with haste.
Casuarina McKinney-Lambert of Bahamas Reef Environmental Educational Foundation (BREEF), a coalition member, said: “This may be our last chance to save our corals and our fishing and tourism-based economy. This is the time to act. Our survival depends on it.”
The coalition leaders declared the government should heed the clear warnings of the IPCC and permanently ban oil drilling.
“We have a responsibility as a signer under the Paris Accords to heed the science and reduce our Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC),” said the coalition.
“As the Bahamas government is now in the process of renewing its position on NDC, we want to remind the government that we should not only say we will do what is necessary with a straight face, but as we are out of time to reverse the impacts of climate change, we must make bold steps to mitigate and prevent new oil development now and in the future”.
