Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Prime Minister Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit urged strong action on climate change when regional leaders met with Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the President Designate of the 28th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP28) on Thursday, August 10 in Barbados.
COP 28 will convene from November 30 to December 12, 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a focus on fast-tracking energy transition and slashing emissions before 2030, transforming climate finance, and placing people, lives, and livelihoods at the heart of climate action.
Prime Minister Skerrit argued that the Caribbean is one of the most vulnerable regions of the world, with climate change, an existential threat.
“The scientific imperative is clear: we need to cut global emissions by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. The political leadership required, however, to deliver at the scale and speed necessary, is lagging. Despite the geopolitical challenges being experienced across the globe, we cannot let up on pursuing ambitious climate actions.
“As the COP28 President designate, we in the Caribbean will count on your leadership to ensure that COP28 is a COP of action! COP28 must deliver actions that are commensurate with ensuring that we keep 1.5 alive! Our lives and that of our children and their children depend on it,” the Prime Minister told the COP 28 President Designate.
The CARICOM Chairman outlined major political outcomes expected from COP 28, which he said were critical to rebuild trust in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process.
- Global Stocktake to ensure the promise of Paris is kept alive as well as an assessment of the adequacy of adaptation efforts, and the financing, capacity building and technology transfer that the Paris Agreement is to deliver
- An ambitious mitigation work programme that will see developed countries and major economies submit enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) aligned to the 1.5 pathway
- The operationalisation and capitalisation of the Loss and Damage fund that will provide critical climate finance to the most vulnerable countries that are ravaged by the adverse impacts of climate change. These funds must be in the form of grants.
- Delivery of a credible roadmap for the doubling of adaptation finance
- Adoption of the Adaptation Framework
- The selection of the host of the Santiago Network
- A Work Program in Just Transition that will ensure equity and include both mitigation and adaptation and that won’t leave any SIDS behind.
Prime Minister Skerrit called for urgency and effective leadership to steer the world on a path of climate action and pledged the region’s “fullest support and solidarity” to the cause.
