As our Prime Minister made the rounds at the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland meeting with some of the world’s most influential leaders, she cemented some of the longstanding relationships that we have leveraged as a small nation.
Prime Minister Mottley’s discussions with United States President Joe Biden was important and noteworthy. He got an opportunity to hear from the leader of a small island developing state (SID) just how impactful climate change continues to be on us and our neighbours.
Facing his own domestic challenges that certainly overshadowed his very presence at the COP26 Climate Summit, Biden is a man whose capital is waning. Not that we are discounting his significance or that of the United States. However, coming after his often-offensive predecessor in the White House, the American presidency has been tarnished. Some may even argue that America’s stature as a world power has been relegated and the honour and deference afforded the nation and its leader have been compromised.
But Biden’s presence could have been regarded as a high-level side show. There was great expectation about what the American president could pledge to the rest of the world but his capacity to do was crippled by his failure to achieve the legislative wins required to propel him with the momentum to articulate real commitments.
That aside, the United Nations Climate Change Conference brought awareness to a subject that some still regard as esoteric and not of real importance to the average Joe. What COP26 did was provide a platform for countries to increase awareness of the devastating impact of climate change.
It is one of those ambitions that cannot be described as lofty, for the implications for populations like ours are too great and threatening to our very survival. As the UN body noted: “COP26 brings the major emitting countries face to face with the countries most vulnerable to climate change. The World Leaders Summit will send a clear signal to negotiators to be as ambitious as possible and agree to a negotiated outcome that accelerates action this decade.”
Our world is currently off track in the desire to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. Moreover, if we continue as we are, temperatures will rise even more, bringing greater catastrophic flooding, fires, extreme weather, and destruction of species on land and in the sea.
Yes, it can be argued that the summit involved many moments of theatrics, grandstanding and “long talk”, as politicians are often inclined to do. But there were also moments of great seriousness, particularly when Prime Minister Mottley drew attention to the failings of industrialised countries to honour their financial pledges to assist those most impacted by the effects of climate change.
“Are we really going to leave Scotland without the results and ambitions needed to save lives and our planet?” she queried, adding, “How many more pictures of people must we see on these screens without being able to move? Are we so blinded and hardened that we can no longer appreciate the cries of humanity?”
The US$100 billion annually that was promised to help developing countries is yet be delivered and our Prime Minister told them to the faces that this was unacceptable.
The world’s richest countries promised US $100 billion pledge in 2009, but they were some US$20 billion short ahead of their 2020 deadline. That missed funding could have made a significant difference to the ability of islands like ours to be more resilient and to prepare our economies for the changes that come with shifts to more environmentally friendly industrial practices.
“For those who have eyes to see, for those who have ears to listen, and those who have a heart to feel, 1.5C is what we need to survive,” the Prime Minister articulated.
“2C is a death sentence for the people of Antigua and Barbuda, for the people of the Maldives, of Dominica and Fiji, of Kenya and Mozambique, and yes, for the people of Barbados.”
So, what happens next? Was it all stage craft and empty promises, or were there real commitments to ensure the protection of this climate and those of us who live in places that are most vulnerable to the effects of the actions of those in developed countries? We may not have the power and might, but SIDs must use every platform to make those with the seats of power uncomfortable about their actions or lack thereof. The time is running out.
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Regarding your OP-ED title. The evidence points to the latter rather than the former. It must be so because world leaders are being celebrated as having done something spectacular and all they was ‘talk.’