A press release, received by The Anguillian newspaper, states that Ms. Racquel Moses, of Trinidad and Tobago, CEO of the Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, has been named as the United Nations Global Ambassador to represent the interests of the Caribbean at the UN climate change conference to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, next week.
According to the announcement, Ms. Moses “will be discussing the challenges facing Caribbean islanders regarding access to financing for sustainability projects and mitigating the effects of the climate crisis.”
While she will be representing the region overall, a number of Caribbean delegates will also be in attendance, along with many world leaders. Among the gathering will be Anguilla’s Parliamentary Secretary, Tourism, Mrs. Quincia Gumbs-Marie, who also has responsibility for environmental and economic development matters. Following COP 26, she will join Premier Dr. Ellis Lorenzo Webster at the Joint Ministerial Conference in London on November 15.
(See press release elsewhere in this edition of The Anguillian newspaper)
In the meantime, Mr. David Carty, a passionate environmentalist in Anguilla, and a noted climate change specialist and commentator, commented on COP 26. “All the COP meetings have been important but all, perhaps with the exception of the Paris Accord, have been basic failures,” he asserted. “I attended COP 15 in Copenhagen which was touted to be the make or break COP which simply stands for Conference of Parties – all those governments and interested groups that want to deal with climate change. Every Conference of Parties, every year, go over the same stuff that we need to do something to limit greenhouse gases; and that climate change is getting out of control, but we never really followed through to any significant extent.”
Mr. Carty continued: “I think what makes this one so crucial is because of the dramatic events this year in terms of weather and climate-related issues – things like the devastating fires in the western United States; floods in Tennessee; Germany; Holland; Turkey; and Russia; and the melting of the permafrost. The hurricanes weren’t bad this year, but still they were sufficiently strong enough for people to say something is changing.”
He was of the view that the biggest problem affecting climate change, was money – and that there were enormously powerful vested interests who do not want climate change or any mitigated efforts against it.
Mr. Carty’s observation appears to have been confirmed by a statement about COP 26 reaching The Anguillian newspaper which said: “There has been mounting pressure surrounding the difficulty for developing nations to partake in the summit. This has been compounded by the fact that these same countries have not received the 100 billion US dollars in funding that had been promised to fund sustainable development initiatives.”
In his Radio Anguilla interview, with Felicia Hennis, Chief Information Officer, Mr. Carty spoke about various climate change and rising sea levels matters, renewable energy and other issues – on which he HAD spoken about with successive Anguilla Governments, and his disappointment to win their approval and action.
“If we don’t make a move – and we have been saying we are making a move, government after government – to transition ANGLEC from fossil fuels to renewal energy… we are going to have to pay inevitable a carbon tax,” he warned. After passionately speaking about a number of climate change and other matters, Mr Carty concluded:
“We are going to have our future determined by nations in Glasgow next week if they are successful…This has nothing to do with racism. It has nothing to do with the British Government because the countries that will meet in Glasgow have recognised and realised that unless serious action is taken, we are in trouble. We could stay here, on our little corner in the planet, and feel we are an island and a nation unto ourselves. But, if we continue thinking this way, we are going to pay a heavy price.”
