NASSAU – Regional leaders open a two-day meeting here on Tuesday hoping to devise a regional position on climate change mitigation ahead of COP 27, which will take place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, November 16-17.
The Bahamas said that the first Regional Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean will be attended by leaders from Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and the Turks and Caicos.
“The government of The Bahamas intends to establish the meeting as an annual event and will seek to have it instituted as a regular meeting on the calendar of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC).
“The Bahamas is introducing this conference as we seek to get results in the climate change fight,” said Prime Minister Philip Davis.
“The Bahamas, along with the region, has lobbied year after year, meeting after meeting, as we sought for the world to acknowledge our vulnerable position.
“This meeting will position the Caribbean region to take control of our fate and present a unified position to the world at COP27,” Prime Minister Davis added.
The government said that the meeting is also intends to establish a Caribbean response exclusive of the conventional Latin America-Caribbean pairing, to better reflect Caribbean states’ common geographical and geo-political issues.
“What we’ve been lacking regionally is a strategy that would aid us in our negotiation process when we go to the conferences of the parties referred to as COPs,” says Rochelle Newbold, special advisor on Climate Change and Environmental Matters and Climate Tsar in the Office of the Prime Minister.
“This year will be COP number 27, and as a region, we have never put forward a strategy document or an intent of how we want to deal with the issues that we face within the region collectively,” Newbold added.
The conference agenda will also focus on renewable energy, energy security, climate adaptation, climate financing, loss and damage due to tropical weather systems and establishing a framework for the sale of carbon credits.
