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PARAMARIBO — De G20-top heeft zich eraan gecommitteerd om een bijdrage te leveren aan het herstel van de wereldeconomie na
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La Corée du Nord a lancé vendredi un missile balistique intercontinental (ICBM), selon l’armée sud-coréenne, dernier épisode en date d’une série record de tirs de projectiles ces dernières semaines, alors que Séoul et Washington s’attendent à un…
La Corée du Nord a lancé vendredi un missile balistique intercontinental (ICBM), selon l’armée sud-coréenne, dernier épisode en date d’une série record de tirs de projectiles ces dernières semaines, alors que Séoul et Washington s’attendent à un essai nucléaire imminent de la part de Pyongyang.
L’état-major sud-coréen “estime que la Corée du Nord a lancé un ICBM”, a déclaré à l’AFP un responsable de la Défense, sans plus de détails. Un peu plus tôt, l’armée du Sud avait indiqué avoir détecté “le lancement d’un missile balistique non-identifié en direction de l’est”.
Le Japon a également confirmé ce lancement, le qualifiant d’”absolument inacceptable”, selon son Premier ministre. Il a averti que l’ICBM pourrait tomber dans sa zone économique exclusive (ZEE) maritime. Les gardes-côtés nippons ont demandé aux navires croisant dans les parages de ne pas s’approcher des débris pouvant flotter en mer.
Le 3 novembre, la Corée du Nord avait déjà lancé un ICBM mais ce tir avait apparemment échoué, selon Séoul et Tokyo. Le pays avait rompu en mars dernier un moratoire qu’il s’était auto-imposé en 2017 sur les lancements de ce type de missiles à longue portée.
La Corée du Nord avait déjà tiré jeudi un missile balistique à courte portée, quelques heures après une mise en garde de son ministre des Affaires étrangères qui avait promis une riposte “féroce” au renforcement de l’alliance de sécurité entre Séoul, Tokyo et Washington.
Les Etats-Unis, la Corée du Sud et le Japon ont intensifié ces derniers mois leurs manoeuvres militaires conjointes face aux menaces de la Corée du Nord, laquelle voit dans ces exercices des répétitions générales à une invasion de son territoire ou à un renversement de son régime.
Au cours d’une rencontre mardi en marge du sommet du G20 à Bali, le président américain Joe Biden a tenté de convaincre son homologue chinois Xi Jinping d’intercéder auprès de la Corée du Nord pour qu’elle renonce à effectuer un essai nucléaire, comme Washington et Séoul lui en prêtent l’intention.
M. Biden, son homologue sud-coréen Yoon Suk-yeol et le Premier ministre japonais Fumio Kishida ont par ailleurs, dimanche, promis une réponse “forte et ferme” si Pyongyang réalise cet essai, qui serait le premier depuis 2017 et le septième de son histoire.
Jeudi, le ministre nord-coréen des Affaires étrangères, Choe Son Hui, a condamné ces rencontres entre dirigeants, affirmant qu’elles font “entrer la situation dans la péninsule coréenne dans une phase imprévisible”.
Plus Washington s’efforce de renforcer son alliance de sécurité avec Tokyo et Séoul, et “plus la riposte militaire de la RPDC sera féroce”, a déclaré M. Choe, en employant le signe de la République populaire et démocratique de Corée, le nom officiel de la Corée du Nord.
La Corée du Nord a procédé début novembre à une rafale sans précédent de lancements de projectiles, dont celui d’un missile balistique qui est tombé près des eaux territoriales de la Corée du Sud. Le président Yoon a dénoncé une “invasion territoriale de facto”.
La seule journée du 2 novembre a vu 23 tirs de missiles nord-coréens, soit plus que pendant toute l’année 2017, quand le dirigeant Kim Jong Un et le président américain de l’époque Donald Trump échangeaient des menaces de guerre nucléaire.
En septembre et octobre, Pyongyang avait déjà effectué une copieuse série de tirs, dont celui d’un missile balistique à moyenne portée qui, le 4 octobre, avait survolé le Japon pour la première fois depuis cinq ans.
Les dernières séries de lancements se sont accompagnées de barrages d’artillerie près de la ligne de démarcation intercoréenne et de sorties aériennes de grande envergure dans le ciel nord-coréen.
Pyongyang a justifié ses actions de novembre par l’attitude “agressive et provocatrice” de Séoul et Washington, qui menaient au même moment les plus grandes manoeuvres aériennes jamais réalisées jusque-là entre eux, avec notamment des avions furtifs et des bombardiers stratégiques.
Les analystes estiment que la Corée du Nord, qui en vertu de résolutions de l’ONU n’a pas le droit de lancer des missiles balistiques, s’est enhardie face à la probabilité d’échapper à toute nouvelle sanction des Nations unies en raison des divisions au Conseil de sécurité.
La Chine, principal allié diplomatique et économique de Pyongyang, s’y est en effet jointe à la Russie en mai dernier pour opposer son veto à une tentative des Etats-Unis de renforcer les sanctions contre la Corée du Nord.
sh/ceb/roc/chv
Le dirigeant nord-coréen Kim Jong Un (centre) marche devant ce que les médias d’Etat nord-coréens affirment être un missile balistique intercontinental Hwasong-17 dans un lieu non précisé en Corée du Nord, le 24 mars 2022
• STR
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Dans la région montagneuse d’Escambray, dans le centre de Cuba, Jesus Chaviano cultive huit variétés d’un arabica de qualité. Il rêve à présent que sa production entre dans le cercle fermé des cafés gourmets ou de “spécialité”, une nouveauté sur…
Dans la région montagneuse d’Escambray, dans le centre de Cuba, Jesus Chaviano cultive huit variétés d’un arabica de qualité. Il rêve à présent que sa production entre dans le cercle fermé des cafés gourmets ou de “spécialité”, une nouveauté sur l’île qui pourrait relancer un secteur en berne.
“Je pense que c’est la voie qu’il nous faut prendre: faire des cafés de spécialité, pas en grande quantité, mais en petits lots afin de bien les vendre”, explique à l’AFP le caféiculteur de 46 ans.
L’heure est à la cueillette sur sa plantation familiale de huit hectares d’arabica dans le massif de Guamuaya, où les conditions climatiques et l’altitude (800 mètres) sont particulièrement favorables à la production.
Jusque-là, Cuba, qui cultive du café depuis près de 300 ans, ne pouvait se prévaloir d’aucun café de spécialité. Ces derniers, valorisés sur le marché international pour leurs qualités gustatives liées à des terroirs spécifiques, ont pourtant relancé depuis une vingtaine d’années l’attrait pour les cafés haut de gamme, en tirant les prix vers le haut.
Mais les choses sont en train de changer: en décembre, cinq premiers cafés de spécialité cubains seront présentés à Santiago de Cuba (est) lors de la première édition de Cuba-Café, un salon de producteurs. Leurs noms et provenances sont pour l’heure gardés secrets.
“Nous avançons dans la valorisation de ce (type de) café”, confirme auprès de l’AFP le directeur scientifique de l’Institut national de recherche agroforestière, Ramon Ramos, bien conscient qu’”avec la même production” et “le même rendement” qu’actuellement, le prix de commercialisation peut être “beaucoup plus élevé”.
Selon lui, une tonne de café commercial oscille sur le marché “entre 4.000 et 5.000 dollars”, alors qu’un kilo de café de spécialité peut être vendu “jusqu’à 10.000 dollars” comme le très sélect café Geisha du Panama. Cela “pourrait contribuer à amorcer un virage pour l’économie” d’un secteur qui a besoin d’investissements, relève-t-il.
Pour être considéré “de spécialité”, un café doit recueillir au moins 80 points sur 100, selon les critères de l’Association des cafés de spécialité (SCA), après avoir été évalué par des “goûteurs certifiés”. Le score obtenu influe sur le prix.
“C’est le futur”, s’enthousiasme Jesus Chaviano devant sa maison construite au milieu de sa plantation, comme le faisaient autrefois les colons français qui, fuyant Haïti au XVIIIe siècle, ont implanté la culture caféière à Cuba.
En pleine saison de récolte, ses 42.000 pieds, qui s’épanouissent sous le couvert d’avocatiers et de bananiers, arborent leurs fruits d’un rouge vif. En 2021, il a atteint un rendement d’une tonne de café à l’hectare, soit quatre fois la moyenne nationale.
En 1960, Cuba produisait plus de 60.000 tonnes de café contre seulement 11.500 tonnes (moins de la moitié de la consommation locale) en 2021, dont 1.365 à peine ont été exportées, selon des chiffres officiels.
Comme tous les agriculteurs de l’île, les caféiculteurs vendent la majeure partie de leur production à l’État. Selon les experts, la chute de la production s’explique par l’impact du changement climatique, la réduction substantielle des surfaces de production et l’émigration de la main-d’oeuvre.
“Je m’attache à bien faire les choses et à démontrer qu’il est possible de produire du café et du café de qualité”, mais “il faut y mettre tout son cœur”, estime M. Chaviano.
A 25 kilomètres de là, les responsables de la station de recherche agronomique de Jibacoa, chargés de fournir un appui technologique aux caféiculteurs, travaillent à accroître les rendements.
L’objectif est une production de 30.000 tonnes de café à l’horizon 2030, explique Ciro Sanchez, son directeur.
Le programme prévoit d’une part de replanter les zones de plaines avec des variétés productives plus résistantes au changement climatique, et d’autre part de favoriser “dans les massifs montagneux (…) la production d’arabica avec de hauts standards de qualité”.
Jesus Chaviano, lui, espère bien qu’un jour une de ses variétés pourra faire son entrée dans le club des cafés gourmets. “On peut y arriver, il faut juste travailler!” lance-t-il optimiste.
rd-jb/lp/sf/jnd
Echantillons de café cubain d’un producteur à Jibacoa, province de Villa Clara, Cuba, le 10 novembre de 2022
• ADALBERTO ROQUE
Un caféiculteur cubain lave des grains de café dans sa propriété de Jibacoa, province de Villa Clara, Cuba, le 10 novembre 2022
• ADALBERTO ROQUE
Un producteur cubain de café dans sa propriété de Jibacoa, dans la province de Villa Clara, Cuba, le 10 de noviembre 2022
• ADALBERTO ROQUE
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The captain of a boat that entered the territory without clearance late Sunday evening was arrested and charged with unlawful possession of ammunition after a search of the vessel yielded a firearm magazine containing ten rounds, the Police Information Office stated on Monday.
The captain — Patrick Faudrois, a 29-year-old Haiti native who resides in St. Thomas — was also fined for various immigration and customs breaches, and he was scheduled to appear before Magistrates’ Court at the next available sitting, police said.
Mr. Faudrois was among five people aboard the boat, all of whom initially were arrested for illegal entry after officers of the Joint Task Force detected the vessel travelling into the VI without making clearance, according to the PIO.
The two males and three females — all of whom reside in St. Thomas — were detained after searches of bags onboard the vessel yielded the firearm magazine, according to police. However, all besides Mr. Faudrois were later discharged, police said, adding that the boat was seized.
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Grammy Award-winning afrofusion star Burna Boy is set to bring his Love Damini tour to the Caribbean islands of Jamaica, Trinidad and Antigua this December.
Burna Boy Live – the Concert Experience would take place in Trinidad on December 16 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain, Antigua on December 17 at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium and Jamaica on December 18 at the National Stadium in Kingston.
Following his recent Grammy nomination for Best Global Music Album for “Love Damini” and Best Global Music Performance for “Last Last”, the African Giant continues to take the world by storm with his world Tour and the Caribbean islands are not left out.
Burna Boy, birth name Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, recently performed across the region in Tobago, Curacao, Dominica, and Sint Maarten. His Caribbean experience saw him performing in torrential rain in Tobago and missing his slated performance in Dominica on the second night of the World Creole Music Festival.
He performed on the final night of the festival to mixed reviews.
His show in St Martin was postponed due to heavy rainfall and flooding.
Burna Boy’s latest round in the Caribbean is the work of a group of event promoters, Twisted Entertainment, Duke Concept, Fete Kingdom and Sho Entertainment.
Twisted Entertainment, which originally originated from Barbados, has grown to become a force to be reckoned with in the Caribbean with its trademark event “Tipsy”, which hosted Burna Boy in Barbados and Miami this year.
Duke Concept, a world-leading brand in African and Caribbean entertainment has hosted events in major venues across the globe, especially in North America.
Fete Kingdom and Sho Entertainment are Antigua-based entertainment, promotions, and event management companies with a focus on producing international casted events and festivals.
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The woman who held Pop Smoke as he took his last breath has broken her silence as she reveals the last thing that the rapper said to her.
Pop Smoke’s death sent shockwaves through the hip-hop community when he was shot and killed during a home invasion in 2020. The young rapper continues to be mourned by his loved ones and fans who have had the pleasure of enjoying his post-humous albums.
While speaking on Hip Hop Homicides, which is executive produced by 50 Cent and Mona Scott-Young, the woman, Amelia Rose, tells show cost, Van Lathan, that she was with the rapper on the night he was killed. The rapper had left to use the bathroom in his Hollywood Hills home before armed intruders broke into the home.
“Pop said he was going upstairs. I’m sitting on the bed and I’m starting to take off my clothes, and he said: ‘OK, I’ll come back,’” she said.
Rose added, “He was going to the restroom and so these were his last words.”
The woman described the moments that followed. “This moment, it was like a couple seconds and I hear the noise,” she said noting that a door in another upstairs bedroom appeared to have opened.
“The guy was in the mask and his gun was like… ‘Look at me,’ you know? His eyes made me so scared. They run to the restroom. Pop screamed, ‘What?!’” she narrated.
The woman said that as the seconds ticked by and the gunmen held onto Pop Smoke, she could hear the commotion before gunshots went off. Rose also became emotional as she recalled the terrifying night and the fact that she thought she was going to be killed as well.
In the meantime, one of Pop Smoke’s killers, 21-year-old Corey Walker, is currently awaiting trial. A pre-trial hearing set for October 13 has been postponed to December 9. Three other juveniles have also been charged with Walker. The alleged triggerman was only 15 years old at the time of the killing.
In court hearings, police say that the murder accused allegedly scoped the rapper’s Instagram story and copied his address which was seen on designer bags packaging he shared online. The suspects managed to rob the rapper of a Rolex watch which they later sold for $2,000.
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News Americas, PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, Fri. Nov. 18, 2022: A defiant former FIFA vice-president said Thursday he would continue to fight his extradition to the United States to answer corruption charges, even after London’s Privy Council ruled that the extradition proceedings are not unlawful.
Trinidad and Tobago born Austin ‘Jack’ Warner, the former football administrator, businessman and politician, also defended the decision by football’s world governing body FIFA, of which he is a former vice-president, to give preference to South Africa, Russia and Qatar to host World Cup Finals. The award of the 2018 World Cup Final to Russia was among the issues at the centre of corruption allegations against the 79-year-old Warner who is facing 12 charges of wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering.
Earlier in the day, the Privy Council, Trinidad and Tobago’s highest court of appeal, dismissed Warner’s lawyers’ contention that the extradition proceedings in the magistrate’s court here were unlawful, thus paving the way for the matter to resume.
“I continue to have confidence in my team led by Fyard Hosein Senior Counsel, and I have advised them to continue to press my case on the three remaining stages of these proceedings,” Warner said in a post on his Facebook page on Thursday morning, following the Privy Council ruling. “I have lived in this country for nearly eighty years, and I am confident that I will continue to receive the love, affection, and respect that people from all walks of life have always extended to me. I am certain I will prevail in the end.”
The court in London, Trinidad and Tobago’s highest appeal court, dismissed Warner’s lawyers’ contention that the extradition proceedings were unlawful. This paves the way for the proceedings in the twin-island republic’s magistrate court to resume.
Warner had challenged the procedure of the extradition proceedings – following the US request, on July 24, 2015, for him to face charges of wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering – as well as the authority to proceed (ATP) granted by the Attorney General in September that year which gave the court the authority to begin the proceedings.
Warner, who also served as CONCACAF president, was indicted in May 2015. US prosecutors allege that from as far back as 1990, he leveraged his influence and exploited his official positions for personal gain.
Among other things, the 79-year-old former football administrator is accused of receiving $5 million in bribes – sent via more than two dozen separate wire transfers, from 10 different shell companies, to a Caribbean Football Union account he controlled at Republic Bank in Trinidad and Tobago – to vote for Russia to host the 2018 World Cup.
Warner was one of 14 defendants charged in connection with the 24-year scheme that prosecutors alleged was designed to “enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer”.
In 2015, FIFA banned him from all soccer-related activities for life.
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News Americas, Nassau, Bahamas, Fri. Nov. 18, 2022: The Securities Commission of The Bahamas has taken control of FTX Digital Markets Ltd., directing the transfer of all digital assets of the company to a digital wallet controlled by the Commission, “for safekeeping.”
The Commission, in a statement, said urgent interim regulatory action was necessary to protect the interests of clients and creditors of FDM. Under the Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges Act, 2020 (“DARE Act”), the Commission has the authority to apply for a judicial order to protect the interests of clients or customers of a registrant of the Commission under the Act.
The Commission says that FDM is not a party to the US Chapter 11 Bankruptcy proceedings. “Over the coming days and weeks, the Commission will engage with other regulators and authorities, in multiple jurisdictions, to address matters affecting the creditors, clients and stakeholders of FDM globally to obtain the best possible outcome,” the Commission said in a statement last night.
FTX was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried as a Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange in 2019 and, at its peak in 2021, had over one million users and was the third largest crypto exchange by volume. FTX is incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda and headquartered in The Bahamas.
The news comes as FTX CEO John Ray III’s filing from Thursday morning revealed a culture of laxity and permissiveness at the imploded crypto dealer, where expenses were approved with color-coded emoji and company money bought employee homes. In a potentially serious concern, Almeda was granted exemption from “certain” parts of FTX’s auto-liquidation feature, a practice similar to a margin call in traditional finance. The former Enron restructuring CEO called some of the past management practices “unacceptable.
Meanwhile, Tom Brady and ex-wife Gisele Bündchen are among a roster of celebrities who have been named as defendants in a class-action lawsuit against the bankrupt crypto-currency company FTX.
The lawsuit, filed by an investor on Tuesday, alleges that by endorsing the company, the former couple — along with Naomi Osaka, Steph Curry, Shaquille O’Neal, Larry David and others — brought credibility to the business, according to the Associated Press.
“Part of the scheme employed by the FTX Entities involved utilizing some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment — like these Defendants — to raise funds and drive American consumers to invest … pouring billions of dollars into the deceptive FTX platform to keep the whole scheme afloat,” the lawsuit stated.
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Former Premier Andrew Fahie and former BVI Ports Authority Managing Director Oleanvine Maynard were already facing three charges in connection with an alleged conspiracy to smuggle cocaine through the Virgin Islands and into the United States.
Now they’ve been hit with a new one. Both were charged last week with “foreign travel in aid of racketeering,” according to a superseding indictment filed Nov. 8 by US prosecutors in the Southern District Court of Florida.
Their arraignment on the new indictment, which was not broadcast online, was scheduled for yesterday morning in Miami.
Under the original grand jury indictment filed on May 10, the pair — along with Ms. Maynard’s son Kadeem Maynard — were accused of conspiracy to import a controlled substance, conspiracy to engage in money laundering, and attempted money-laundering.
The superseding indictment — which does not add any new charges against Mr. Maynard — provides few details, but it alleges that Mr. Fahie’s racketeering-related offence took place on or about April 24, Ms. Maynard’s on or about April 26. Around that same time, both defendants were part of a VI delegation that attended the April 25-28 Seatrade Cruise Global Conference in Miami.
The pair were arrested on April 28 in an airport near the city’s downtown area. The new indictment accuses Mr. Fahie and Ms. Maynard of knowingly travelling “in interstate and foreign commerce with the intent to promote, manage, establish, carry on, and facilitate the promotion, management, establishment and carrying on of an unlawful activity, that is a business enterprise involving narcotics or controlled substances.”
The new charge carries a maximum prison sentence of five years and a maximum fine of $250,000. The penalties for the other charges, by contrast, are harsher: a maximum of life in prison and a maximum $10 million fine for conspiracy to import a controlled substance; and a maximum of 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $500,000 or twice the value of the property involved in the transaction for the money-laundering-related charges.
The superseding indictment — which was filed by US attorneys Juan Antonio Gonzalez and Shane Butland — doesn’t explain why the new charges weren’t included in the original indictment. Attempts to reach the US attorneys and Mr. Fahie’s Florida attorney, Theresa Van Vliet, were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, on Nov. 10, US prosecutors mailed audio transcripts and video recordings to attorneys for the three defendants as part of the ongoing discovery process, according to a court document Mr. Gonzalez filed the same day in response to a standing discovery order.
The data include transcripts of audio recordings made on April 27 and 28 as well as videos of Mr. Fahie and Ms. Maynard recorded on April 28, the day of their arrest.
US prosecutors have previously claimed that their evidence against the former premier and his co-defendants includes more than 133 hours of audio and video recordings.
If played back-to-back without interruption, those recordings would last for more than five full days. The audio and video files — which prosecutors have been turning over as part of the discovery process — include recordings of meetings and phone calls that were secretly taped by US agents and informants, as well as files extracted from a Samsung Note 10 phone and other electronic devices belonging to Mr. Fahie and Ms. Maynard, according to a Sept. 12 document filed by Mr. Gonzalez in response to the standing discovery order.
The trio’s trial initially was scheduled to begin on July 18. But in keeping with usual practice in such cases, it was pushed back to Jan. 16 after the defendants’ attorneys asked for more time to prepare. Mr. Fahie is currently on house arrest in his daughters’ rented apartment in Florida, where he has been since he was released on bail after spending about six weeks in custody at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami.
Mr. Fahie secured a $1 million bond offer after a month-long battle with prosecutors, and he was released on June 13 after his childhood friend and prominent VI businessman Albion “Bobby” Hodge posted a $500,000 bond and satisfied a Nebbia requirement by proving that the money was not the proceeds of crime.
Besides the $500,000 corporate surety bond posted by Mr. Hodge, Mr. Fahie also had to post a $500,000 personal surety bond co-signed by himself, his daughters, and his friend Devon Osborne. As part of his corporate surety bond conditions, Mr. Fahie is required to undergo 24/7 GPS monitoring, and he is prohibited from leaving his daughters’ apartment even for attorney visits. He also had to sign an extradition waiver, which he did the day of his release. The Maynards were denied bail and remain in custody pending the trial.
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The Virgin Islands and other overseas territories need “truer” representation at global forums like the ongoing COP27 climate change conference in Sharm ElSheik, Egypt, Natural Resources and Labour Minister Mitch Turnbull said on Tuesday. He made the point while meeting with Lord Zac Goldsmith, the United Kingdom’s new OT minister, on the sidelines of the United Nations conference, according to the VI government.
COP27, which started Nov. 6 and is scheduled to end tomorrow, brought together more than 100 world leaders and thousands of other attendees to discuss an array of issues including rising global temperatures.
The forum has seen negotiators from nearly 200 countries working with limited success to find consensus on plans to cut emissions and to create a “loss and-damage” fund for countries being negatively affected by climate change.
But the VI and other UK territories — which in many ways are on the front lines of the climate crisis — could not participate directly in the negotiations: Because they are represented by the UK, they are not permitted to send their own negotiators to the talks.
In the lead-up to the negotiations last week, leaders of small island states publicly criticised wealthy nations for driving global warming and urged them to pay for economic damages sustained by their poorer counterparts.
Mr. Turnbull said Tuesday that his call for better representation of the OTs on the global stage was made against the backdrop that the territories “make up about 90 percent of the UK’s oceans and areas significantly affected by climate change.”
During his meeting with Lord Goldsmith, he added, the British member of parliament expressed enthusiasm about his new portfolio and pledged to provide resources to different regions to mitigate the climate crisis.
Mr. Turnbull deemed the appointment of Lord Goldsmith — the successor of Jesse Norman, who served briefly as OT minister while Liz Truss was prime minister in September and October — as opportune because “his professional interests and innate passions comprise nature and the environment.”
The VI minister also said he invited Lord Goldsmith to visit the territory as Mr. Norman had planned to do shortly before he was replaced.
Last Thursday on the sidelines of COP27, Mr. Turnbull also signed a joint declaration on climate financing along with 12 other parliamentarians from ten countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean who participate in the Parliamentary Observatory on Climate Change and Just Transition (known by its Spanish acronym OPCC).
The declaration was signed during a hybrid forum organised by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean with the support of the European Union through the Euroclima+ Programme and the Open Society Foundations, the UN stated.
The declaration reaffirms the signatories’ commitment to “the co-construction of a concrete agenda of actions to promote information access and the design of climate policies,” according to the UN.
Additionally, the agreement highlights the main preliminary findings of the OPCC’s first policy brief, which is expected to present a comparative study of climate change framework legislation in the countries represented in the OPCC, including the issue of climate finance, the UN stated.
The global heavyweights who have attended COP27 in recent days include US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
On Tuesday a Reuters report stated that Mr. Biden and China President Xi Jinping plan to resume climate talks soon — a move that the report described as a major potential boost to the COP’s long-delayed pledges.
As of Tuesday, Reuters stated, negotiations at the conference had been moving at a snail’s pace since the negotiators had been unable to find consensus on a proposed loss-and damage fund through which rich nations would help developing nations meet the costs of climate-related disasters.
Before Mr. Turnbull left for COP27, he said the VI delegation would aim to collaborate with other nations to influence the global conversation on climate-change solutions. He pointed out that small island nations typically have the smallest carbon footprints and produce the least pollution, but they often suffer the worst effects of climate change.
“This is why our presence and participation in COP27 along with other small island states is crucial,” he said. Mr. Turnbull added that the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events globally is impacting the lives of millions of people. In that regard, he said, the VI has had first-hand experience from the devastation caused by hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley aired similar concerns when she made a blistering call for more action last week at COP27. Ms. Mottley told the audience that funding is badly needed to assist small nations in their climate-change mitigation efforts, and she noted that many such states have put mitigation plans in place. “We have come here to ask that we open our minds to different possibilities,” she said.
“We believe we have a plan that there can be the establishment of a climate mitigation trust that unlocks $5 trillion of private-sector savings if we can summon the will to use the [International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights] — $500 billions of SDRs in a way that unlocks the private-sector capital,” she said.
Ms. Mottley and other island leaders also urged attendees to move forward with a loss-and-damage fund to help the countries most affected by climate change. “How do companies make $200 billion in profits in the last three months and not expect to contribute at least ten cents in every dollar of profit to a loss and-damage fund? This is what our people expect,” she said.
As of the Beacon’s print deadline yesterday afternoon, negotiators were still debating a draft text that would launch such a fund, in hopes of reaching an agreement before COP27 ends tomorrow. Ms. Mottley also called for an end to the ongoing Russia Ukraine war, noting that countries such as Barbados often suffer from conflicts that don’t involve them. “Our people on this earth deserve better,” she said.
“And what is more, our leaders know better. Because while many of us may not have been alive during the great wars, the consequences of those wars still live with us, and we have the capacity to choose differently.”
She added that all stakeholders — including oil and gas companies and associated entities — should meet to discuss pertinent issues prior to COP28, which is scheduled to be held in the United Arab Emirates next November.
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