COP 27 looms large in wake of Hurricane Lisa

Black Immigrant Daily News

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Nov. 3, 2022

From Sunday, November 6, to Friday, November 18, the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt — just days after Hurricane Lisa battered portions of Belize on November 2, which is seen as just one more indication that climate change is intensifying the threats faced, particularly by low-lying developing countries such as Belize, during the Atlantic Hurricane Season. This is exactly the point that countries in the region and other low-lying countries, many of which are the least equipped financially to recover from the economic blows caused by these storms, will be trying to make at the two-week conference, COP27, where they will discuss how to achieve the global climate goals as agreed upon under the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement. What countries such as Belize will once again be demanding, therefore is climate justice and adequate climate finance — especially since it’s been noted that the countries being most impacted by climate change (like Belize) are not the countries which contributed most to global warming through greenhouse gas emissions (wealthier, more industrialized nations such as the United States).

It is a point that is more poignant just days after the landfall of Hurricane Lisa along Belize’s coast. The country is now scrambling to regain economic footing after extensive damage of public infrastructure and private property. Today, Prime Minister John Briceno during a press conference on the impact of Hurricane Lisa, spoke on the importance of the provision of climate finance for vulnerable countries like Belize.

“Many of these developed countries don’t feel what we are going through,” Prime Minister Briceno said. He noted that in comparison to developed countries, when disasters hit developing states like Belize, the impact on the nation’s economic development is monumentally more severe.

“That is why we have been calling out to the international community, that they need to do their part. We are doing our part to protect the planet, to protect the environment, to try to hold down the increase in temperature, but yet they are not doing their part; they have damaged their environment to be able to grow their economies. So now it’s their turn now to pay us for the work that we have been doing.” PM Briceno said.

The CEO of the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Disaster Risk Management, Dr. Kenrick Williams, expressed similar sentiments during NEMO’s press conference yesterday morning:

“If you compare the economic implications of Hurricane Lisa on Belize compared to a storm on Miami, they’re significantly different, because the US can position monies, investments in responding to those storms. Countries like ours struggle and suffer. We were on very good economic trend over the last few months, and this is going to significantly impact our country. We’re going to have to spend resources to try to respond to this storm – not just the financial implications. There are social implications on our people. There’s a setback that this will cause our people. And again, this is the result of the changing climate that is not the culpability of our country, or one of two countries, but on the global economy. So countries like Belize have to go out there and defend and say, ‘listen, we are being impacted and the impact that we receive is not on scale to the other countries, so we have to ensure that in times like this we have the resources to be able to respond to support our people,” he said.

Dr. Williams also highlighted the fact that human-caused climate change is no longer a question of debate — but a reality that we are experiencing every day. He said that the delegation from Belize and representatives from across the Caribbean will lobby at COP27 to try to secure the climate financing needed for the region.

In September 2022, the global surface temperature was recorded at 0.88°C (1.58°F) above the 20th century average of 15.0°C (59.0°F), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Centers For Environmental Information. We have seen extreme and, in some instances, unprecedented weather events this year so far, most recently the formation of tropical cyclones that have become named storms at the tail end of the Atlantic Hurricane Season. One of those storms, Hurricane Lisa, made landfall in Belize this week.

Notably as well, the islands of the Caribbean and Africa recorded the 6th warmest September in history, according to NOAA records. In North America, the warmest September in history was recorded, while Europe had its coolest weather in the period immediately following a summer of extreme heat.

Caribbean leaders, are hoping that the upcoming conference will lead to the mobilization of billions of dollars needed to make economies across the world green while building resilience against the impacts of climate change.

The UNFCCC’s Standing Committee on Finance has published reports based on data which the committee says was derived from the “experience of countries, multilateral development banks, climate funds and the financial community at large.”

The two-week COP 27 will again provide an opportunity for world leaders, experts, and climate activists to come together and chart a part forward for our global future, given the realities of the changing climate.

NewsAmericasNow.com