The Honourable Parliamentary Secretary, Mrs. Quincia Gumbs-Marie, indicated that COP26 meetings held in Glasgow and the JMC meetings held in London, were major successes. She said: “COP26, in my opinion and the opinion of others, was a major success for the Overseas Territories (OTs). For the first time, we had the opportunity to represent ourselves in person on such an international stage. We’ve made connections amongst ourselves, and made better connections with the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the United Kingdom Government (UKG), and other major Non-Government Organisations (NGOs). Right now, Anguilla is in a good position with the work that we are doing so far. The big thing is finding partners to move forward.”
She also indicated that, because the OT representatives created a sort of “synergy” around one specific point, climate change, “they were able to speak with major players about their aspirations and where they could have certain levels of interactions and partnerships,” she said. Coming out of the meetings, she foresees major opportunities for Anguilla such as: working with the Commonwealth and being the first OT to join one of their action groups; continuing with the International Maritime Organisation; working with the United Nations; developing a new-found relationship with the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) – as well as beginning relationships with certain private partners.
Mrs. Gumbs-Marie stated that one of the greatest successes of the meetings “is that we were able to tell our story.” Speaking on Talk Anguilla Rebranded Part II, hosted by Keith “Stone” Greaves, she said: “What we need are partners, not persons to tell us how we need to respond to climate change. We want action, but [that] action cannot take place without our input. If we are not a part of the policy designs that are meant to suit us, they will never be able to fit within our context, because we were not consulted.” She continued: “We are just asking for flexibility and room to shape. We want to do what is right. We are victims of inaction. We just want the space to shape the policy that is meant to serve us best.” She further stated: “That message got across on every forum.”
She indicated further, to Mr. Keith “Stone” Greaves, that she was able to shape her message on climate change and the economy, into a language that encompassed Anguilla’s dependency upon the ocean as the underpinning of our tourism product. She said: “Anguilla has always been a ‘Blue Economy’ – Our forefathers [went to other countries] by way of the ocean to find other economies and [return home]. Our national sport [boat racing] is rooted in the Blue Economy. The fact that our entire economy is based on tourism, which is coastal tourism because it is heavily rooted in our oceans, that is the ‘Blue Economy’…so, the BANG is really bringing together what we know exist and also what we know it can become.”
She continued: “Development can be done in two ways. It can be ‘process-led’ where things just happen as a result of, or it can be ‘action-led’ where you have an organised approach to how you develop or move into a certain way. The BANG is really Anguilla’s attempt at action-led development, and the ‘Blue Economy’ paper is really at the heart of Anguilla’s economic development…We must have a systemic organized approach to how we deal with the effects of climate change on our island [so that] we can be economically resilient.”
As part of ‘our story’, Mrs. Gumbs-Marie said that she was able to convey what climate adaptation and climate financing mean to Anguilla. She observed: “Climate adaptation is really our response to climate change…and it cannot be mitigation because, even if we go to net zero as a region, it still would not be enough to turn back the hands on climate change and global warming. What we need to do is to build resiliently and adapt to years and years of abuse and inactivity so that we are able to survive these climate events. We are disproportionately affected.”
“Our economy and our environment are inseparable,” she continued. “You can have a thriving economy, but just 2 hours into a storm and your entire GDP is wiped out, all your infrastructure, even underground is ripped out. We are literally building our country from scratch every time we have a major catastrophic event. Showing the importance of having a resilient economy, as a critical tool in the fight for climate change, was a major thing that we [OTs] would have accomplished at the COP26 and at the JMC.”
