Belize is Optimistic about COP29  

In just a few days, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP29, will kick off. This event brings together global leaders to discuss strategies for boosting climate resilience and holding themselves accountable for past environmental promises. This year, Belize is sending a small delegation, including Minister of Agriculture Jose Abelardo Mai. We spoke with Minister of Sustainable Development Orlando Habet, who shared that the focus of the conference will be on increasing access to funding. Here’s more on that.

 

Orlando Habet, Minister of Climate Change

“One of the main focus areas for COP 29 will be financing and the one hundred billion that was promised some years ago finally accordingly reached in 2022.  But we are looking for a much more than that the top is in the trillions of dollars. I will be leading AOSIS and CARICOM. In the new collective quantified goal, which is trying to see how these developed countries fulfill their commitments based on the Paris Agreement that says that developed countries are to provide the funding for developing countries. As AOSIS, as Caribbean, because we are small, considered small island developing states, we are highest in vulnerability to climate change. And so we are also looking for them to consider our vulnerabilities as part of the consideration for the funding. But we also had some success in the previous cup where the loss and damage fund was approved. It’s somewhere a little bit over four hundred million. We want to see how at this couple can increase. The president of COP 29 that they will try to see how in the first week you can try to scale up that funding. And so if we are around the table, we can start negotiating.”