Roseau, Dominica: Prime Minister Dr Roosevelt Skerrit strictly demanded climate action from the developed world and asked them to hold themselves accountable for the destruction caused by Hurricane Beryl.
Speaking at Pres Briefing during his tour to St Vincent and the Grenadines with other OECS leaders, he said that he is very upset with the international community for their reluctance in taking on their responsibility in a serious manner.
“We have been speaking about the issue of climate change and its negative impact on our society, our lives or livelihoods for many decades now, with a recognition of their responsibility, but not the fulfillment of their promises, ”said the prime minister.
Talking about the issues of small island states, PM Skerrit asserted that every time they make efforts to advance the country’s development, they are pulled back five, six, seven, eight, nine steps back. The issue of climate change and its impact has affected every one of them.
Giving an example of Dominica, the prime minister added,” In Dominica’s case, for example, when I look at our debt profile, 85% of our debt now on our books has been in response to natural disasters and to replace damaged infrastructure.”
Due to this, he gave a call for collaboration and advocacy for the issue of climate change. He said that they are not hearing the voices of advocacy from the various sectors of the society, not from the private sector, not from civil society, and not from the church in a consistent manner.
He called it an opportunity and cited, ”It’s an opportunity for us to rally around our advocacy and calling on international community to fulfill their promises.”
Prime Minister Dr Roosevelt Skerrit outlined the promises made by the developed world during the Paris Accord, the visit to Copenhagen and not $1 has been delivered from the country. He also hailed Prime Minister Gonsalves for his advocacy against climate change for more than 23 years.
PM Skerrit added that the country is fortunate at this time to have Prime Minister Gonzalez at the helm of the government, because he has the experience, he has the capacity and very importantly, he has the international and regional connections to help mobilize resources during the most difficult time confronting the world now.
Talking about the benefits given by the meetings, summits that occurred on climate issues and added that should they go, should they attend such meetings. He said that they should stop putting their energy into such meetings and work for the resilience approach.
“We have to move away from focusing on the media and on social media platforms, move away from sensation and recognize that there are bigger fish to fry insofar as the challenges confronting our countries, and this is not a political consideration. This is a nationalistic consideration because at the end of the day, every single person in Union Island is affected,”said the prime minister.
Further, he expressed solidarity with St Vincent and the Grenadines and added that this is time to stick together even more closely, because it is a collective fight, they must have collective efforts and collective solidarity.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit added that empathy should not be only in worlds, it should be in practice and action, and when these developed countries speak about adaptation, and now they use the word resilience and having to put mitigation systems in place and the pledged monies, those monies are really for their own countries.
