NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania, CMC -Guyana has told an international conference here that climate change represents an existential threat to the planet and requires collective global action.
Addressing the 49th 49th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh said Guyana welcomes the chairing of the upcoming 2023 UN Climate Change Conference (COP-28) that will be convened in Dubai by the United Arab Emirates from November 30 to December 12.
“We look forward to greater balance in the climate debate, including by bringing the development and poverty reduction imperatives back on the agenda,” Singh said.
“Additionally, as a heavily forested country, Guyana calls on the global community to recognize that there is no solution to the climate crisis without forests and that concerted action on forests is needed given the role of forests not only in the fight against climate change but also in protecting biodiversity and in combating desertification.
“Guyana also remains firmly in solidarity with all vulnerable countries in the struggle for improved access to financing for adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage,” he added.
Singh said that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country is also concerned about food security, noting that the ongoing onslaught of climate change along with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the war in Ukraine “combined to reverse many of the gains we made as a global community in improving food security.
He said under the leadership of President Dr. Irfann Ali, Guyana has spearheaded the preparation of a strategy for the Caribbean region to address food security.
“This strategy aims at increasing food production and productivity, ramping up agro-processing and value-added production, and promoting agri-business and intra-regional trade in food products.
“We urge this Council to call on the global community to leverage public and private financial resources to increase food production, deploy science and technology to raise productivity, and remove barriers to regional and global trade in food products.”
Singh said energy security is another area of concern for his country, which he said is inextricably linked to the former two issues. Adequate and competitively priced energy is critical for the viability of value-added production.
“Additionally, the transition to cleaner energy sources is also critical in the fight against climate change. Ramping up energy production and transitioning to cleaner energy requires significant financial investment by both the public and private sectors.
“We urge this Council to call on the global community to recognize the crippling energy deficit in so many of our countries and to mobilize financial resources to help address this deficit while at the same time supporting the transition to cleaner sources of energy,” Singh said.
During his address, Singh said the meeting is taking place just over a month after the horrific earthquakes that rocked Turkey and northern Syria.
He said natural disasters have also inflicted suffering on several member states, including Pakistan, that endured devastating floods in 2022, resulting in a humanitarian crisis that affected millions.
“These events underscore the grave threat which natural hazards pose and highlight the urgency with which we need to move as a global community to find lasting solutions to reinforce resilience in all its dimensions,” Singh told the Council meeting.
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