Prime Minister Dean Barrow is leading a Belizean delegation to the
United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen Denmark on Saturday.
As one of the so called most vulnerable countries, Belize is part of a group
that will get special consideration. But we also fit into another special group
called alliance of small island states. So we should be double considered for
funding adaptive measures. Yesterday, Prime Minister Barrow discussed the impact
of climate change on countries like Belize – he said it’s close
to home.
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
“What’s being looked at is the effort to trying to get a binding
agreement out of Copenhagen that would deal with this question of greenhouse
gases of CO2 emissions. The threats that uncontrolled or unreduced emissions
pose to life and pose to survival, especially in the case of small island and
low lying coastal states are well documented. We’re talking about coral
bleaching, we’re talking about the possibility of sea level rising that
can inundate places like Ambergris Caye, we’re talking about the fact
that Belize City, which is supposed to be below sea levels would have to start
contemplating on building sea defenses, we’re talking about the variation
in precipitation that’s going to affect agriculture and food security;
we’re talking about a whole gamut of threats that that constitute a clear
and present danger.
So it is especially important—forget the wider concerns of the planet
which are important—but it is especially important for us that are particularly
vulnerable try to come away from Copenhagen with some kind of agreement. It
seems to be clear that while the alliance of small island states and while in
fact the Commonwealth was able to reach agreement at the Port of Spain Summit,
that’s not likely to be replicated at Copenhagen. I think that the original
ambitious goal is being retreated from somewhat. The hope is that some kind
of operational understanding can be reached and that the binding treaty framework
can then be concluded in next year, 2010. You are not going to get treaty language
coming out from Copenhagen. Since our forests are storers of carbon and whenever
you cut down a tree, it releases carbon into the atmosphere, that there ought
to be some mechanism to compensate countries such as Belize for forest conservation.
We need to get at least that kind of an issue finalized because it’s going
to have now a positive effect on our economic development and our need for additional
revenues.
The science and the analysis tells us that this thing is going require
about $100 billion a year to fund adaptation measures but because there has
already been that in-principled commitment on the part of the UK, Canada, and
Australia, we think there is no way we are going to come from Copenhagen without
at least some tangible goals being achieved for our small countries.”
The Prime Minister said that there will be no binding agreement coming
out of Copenhagen but the best they can hope for is for the contours of an agreement
with financing for adaptive measures for countries like Belize. Starting next
year a fund for the 25 most vulnerable states will be funded with $10 billion
in the first two years.
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