BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC—Caribbean Community (CARCOM) countries are being urged to voice their concerns in support of the Paris Agreement, which will maintain the 1.5-degree limit on global warming until the end of the century.
CARCOM leaders are entering the final day of their three-day summit on Friday, and the issue of climate change, in particular, where global warming reached 1.55 degrees last year, was discussed during their deliberations on Thursday.
Well-placed sources told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the regional leaders were told there is a “solid common doctrine” regarding climate change, with a total commitment to the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement is an international treaty that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming. It was adopted in 2015 and came into force in 2016.
According to the sources, the summit was told that regional countries must maintain a “total commitment” to keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit until the end of the century.
However, the regional leaders were urged to accelerate efforts to maintain this international position.
They said, for example, that last year, the world recorded temperatures of 1.55 degrees with a warning that there would be other possibilities of being above 1.5 degrees.
The CARICOM leaders were told that a strategy is needed that guarantees the region’s intensification of efforts to maintain the limit to the end of the century, as decided in the Paris Agreement.
They were told that the National Determined Contributions (NDC) would probably not be enough and that efforts are being made to get Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the CARICOM chair, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, to undertake several initiatives.
These include writing to the 35 biggest emitters and appealing for them to have their NDCs fully aligned with 1.5, covering all economies and greenhouse gases, and then putting staff at their disposal to discuss the details about the level of emissions reduction that would be necessary.
There are also efforts to have President Lula and Mottley meet virtually with a selected number of the biggest emitters and also have on NDCs either a session during the United Nations General Assembly or in another moment together with the presidents of the Conference of the Parties (COP), the supreme decision-making body of the Convention.
However, the regional leaders were told that they should voice their concerns about the other countries that are the most problematic in ensuring that they have NDCs in line with 1.5 degrees.
The Caribbean was also asked to take advantage of the situation in developing their NDCs and create much more substantial autonomy, namely regarding renewable energy and other aspects, in keeping with the decision for developed countries to double their adaptation contributions, which the sources told CMC “are minor, minor resources compared with the needs.”
They said it needs to be implemented to ensure that the Loss and Damage Fund “really is a serious thing.”
The sources said that a lot of bureaucratic work has been done to put it to work until now, but the money has not yet appeared. As of Thursday this week, the amounts that were pledged are an estimated US$700 million.
The sources said the funds pledged so far could force the countries to find new funding sources given that official development assistance (ODA) is dwindling, taking note of the new position adopted by the United States with all their development and humanitarian programs.
The Caribbean leaders were reminded that one of the initiatives of the Biden administration was in methane, which is a very important component in climate warming, and that maybe the Donald Trump administration will be interested in allowing the initiative to continue.
The sources said that the leaders were urged to keep an open mind and maintain a clear determination to seize all opportunities for areas of cooperation that may contribute to reaching the region’s objectives, which are to stop global warming and create conditions.
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