Black Immigrant Daily News

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Ce mardi à Paris, Alexandre ROCHATTE, Ary CHALUS, Guy LOSBAR, et Jean-Louis FRANCISQUE, ont signé la feuille de route détaillant le plan d’actions prioritaires à mettre en œuvre, ainsi que les contributions respectives des acteurs dans le cadre de la structuration du SMGEAG.

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Highly polluting emerging economies including China and India should pay into a climate compensation fund to help countries rebuild after climate change-driven disasters, the prime minister of island nation Antigua and Barbuda said on Tuesday.

The comments marked the first time the two nations have been lumped into the list of major emitters that island states say should be held to account for damage already being wrought by global warming.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne, speaking on behalf of the Association of Small Island States (AOSIS) negotiating bloc, told reporters the world’s first- and third-biggest greenhouse gas emitters – though still emerging economies – have ares ponsibility to pay into a fund.

Delegates at the conference agreed to put the topic of loss and damage onto the formal agenda for the first time in the history of international climate negotiations.

“We all know that the People’s Republic of China, India – they’re major polluters, and the polluter must pay,” Browne said. “I don’t think that there’s any free pass for any country and I don’t say this with any acrimony.”

In U.N. climate talks, the phrase “loss and damage” refers to costs already being incurred from climate-fuelled weather extremes or impacts, like rising sea levels.

To date, climate vulnerable countries have called on historical emitters like the United States, United Kingdom andthe EU to pay climate reparations. China itself has previously supported the creation of a lossand damage fund but has not said it should pay into it. The EU and United States have said that China, the world’s biggestgreenhouse gas emitter, should pay.

India, though a top emitter, has per capita emissions that are significantly lower than the world average.

AOSIS wants a full commitment to launch a multibillion dollar fund by 2024.

Egypt’s lead climate negotiator Mohamed Nasr told Reuters that the goal for the COP27 negotiations was to get some clarity on the way forward for loss and damage, but that there was still a wide range of views.

“Now we have a starting point, so it is more streamlined and more focused and hopefully by the end of the two weeks we’ll have something that would identify the road map, the milestones to deliver,” he said.

Over the coming year the goal would be to identify a mechanism for delivering loss and damage funding.

“We’ll be looking at the different options. Is it a facility? Is it a new fund? Is it the existing funds? I mean there are a lot of options,” he said. “What we heard from many countries is that they want to keep their options open.”

Another AOSIS negotiator, Deputy Environment Minister of International Cooperation Milagros De Camps, said from the perspective of island nations like hers that face more frequent and powerful natural disasters like hurricanes and cyclones the need for a new dedicated compensation fund is clear.

“We need specific fund fit for purpose… a separate operating entity,” she told reporters. “This is a matter of survival for small island developing states.”

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File photo: Independent Senator Dr Varma Deyalsingh.

Independent Senator Dr Varma Deyalsingh is urging the government to carefully discuss its stance on allowing firearms users licence (FUL) applications and avoid raising fees to dissuade applicants.

Deyalsingh spoke in debate on the Finance Bill in the Senate on Tuesday. He noted the increase in fees for FULs, gunsmith licences, firearms dealers’ licences and firearms disposal licences.

He said an increase in administrative fees over time was necessary to generate revenue, but should not be used to discourage people from applying for FULs.

He stressed that many people felt a need to better defend themselves against crime and urged the government to consider the value of FULs.

“We are dealing in some dangerous times with home invasions – we see individuals coming into the home now where eight well-armed, very fit people – some instances have shown members of the army involved in these robberies that occur, and these individuals are armed to the teeth coming into our homes.

“Increasing the fees for the licence to get revenue is one thing. But trying to look at getting an increase in fees or change the mindset of people wanting to apply for firearms is another. I know the government is under discussion with this and I want to beg to move that persons out there would have found that somehow they would have rather been given a chance to defend themselves.”

Referring to instances in which legitimate businessmen were forced to close their businesses after being threatened and extorted by criminals, Deyalsingh said the perception of many people was that only a privileged class was allowed to own legal firearms.

He said he felt adequate measures were in place to prevent misuse of firearms by FUL holders, and questioned the government’s hesitance in issuing the permits.

“I’m honestly trying to figure out what is government’s hesitance with giving people firearms.

“It’s just like a car: if I have a licence I can buy five cars. We have better checks and balances than the USA and other countries. There are things in place.

“So I’m thinking and I’m hoping the government will realise that once people have those checks and balances, it is enough, because even trained policemen can have accidental discharges (of guns).”

Deyalsingh added that most people who wanted FULs were not advocating violence, but only wanted an additional measure to protect themselves and relatives from criminals.

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Social activist Ravi Balgobin Maharaj

GOVERNMENT is facing a threat of legal action over its decision to postpone local government elections by a year.

The threat comes from activist Ravi Balgobin-Maharaj, who says as a voter in the Maracas/Santa Margarita electoral district, he is aggrieved by the decision taken by Cabinet and announced by Local Government and Rural Development Minister Faris Al-Rawi, last week.

Balgobin-Maharaj has given the Government until 4 pm on November 14 to return to the original period for holding the election – constitutionally due between December 2022 and March 2023 – or he will go to court for judicial review relief. He says he believes “there is the real risk that councillors, aldermen, and mayors will be unlawfully occupying their respective offices from December 3, 2022.”

Balgobin-Marahaj’s threat of legal action was sent to the Prime Minister, Attorney General and Al-Rawi in a pre-action protocol letter written by attorney Vishaal Siewsaran of Freedom Law Chambers.

In the letter, Balgobin-Maharaj said he has grown frustrated by the poor representation in his district.

“The electoral district continues to have numerous potholes, the drains are not regularly cleaned, the environment is unkempt, and when it rains there is widespread flooding and mosquitoes in the area.”

He said he was looking forward to the local government elections “to vote for a new representative in hope that better representation could be provided for the burgesses of the electoral district of Maracas/Santa Margarita.”

The letter also set out the history behind the Miscellaneous Provisions (Local Government Reform) Bill.

Balgobin-Maharaj is contending the decision of the Cabinet was unauthorised, contrary to law and an abuse of power to “retrospectively apply an amendment to the law to increase the terms of councillors which ultimately delays the local government elections.”

He also alleges, “Government’s attempt to delay the elections by retrospectively applying the amendments to the Municipal Corporations Act is a fraud committed on the electorate, in bad faith, which amounts to an improper use of the legislation.”

The letter adds, “The decision also denies the electorate of their legitimate expectation that the councillors (whom) they elected in 2019 would only be in office for a three-year term.

“Furthermore, those persons serving on the council have also been denied their legitimate expectation that they would only serve a three-year term.”

The letter said any decision to change or amend the act must be done expressly and unambiguously.

“In other words, whenever elections are to be denied or deferred it ought not to be done by implication. “The laws ought to be interpreted in a way which facilitates the holding of elections unless the contrary intention is expressly shown.

“If it were the intention of the Government, who holds a parliamentary majority, to amend the law to defer the elections, it ought to have confronted the issue squarely in the Parliament.”

The letter said it was “inherently wrong” for the Government to amend the law “under the guise of local government reform, only to attempt to apply those amendments implicitly in a piecemeal and retrospective manner to alter the terms of the council which was elected in 2019 under and by virtue of the law that existed at the material time.”

It added, “The effect of the Government’s interpretation of the law is to extend the life of the current council by one year.

“In other words, the electorate is being denied its right to vote in elections for that period by amendments which do not state on its face that it is to have retrospective effect, and which clearly ought not to be interpreted in that manner.”

It argued, “An analysis of whether the amendments have retrospective effect must be conducted subject to the constitutional significance of the right to vote.”

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