PM Briceño’s Comments at COP26 Get Response From British PM
News Five’s Duane Moody is out in Glasgow, Scotland where the United Nations Conference of the Parties is underway. Today, the World Leaders Summit concluded where country leaders from small island developing states as well as those from larger countries, referred to as the G20. The call is for action to be taken by those countries that have not made good on their commitments in the Paris Agreement signed years ago. Prime Minister John Briceño attended and did not mince words. In fact, his comments caught the attention of the British press as a reporter asked Prime Minister Boris Johnson about the comments made by the Prime Minister from Belize. Here’s Duane Moody’s report.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Thousands have converged here in Glasgow, Scotland in the UK, where climate change is the theme for the discussion. World leaders for the past two days have been meeting to address the management of climate change. Be that, mitigation, adaptation, and even access to climate finances. Belize’s very own Prime Minister John Briceño has been attending these meetings and has had a strong message for these countries that have been emitting large volumes of greenhouse gases.
Prime Minister John Briceño
Prime Minister John Briceño
“We are doing our part and prepared to do even more, but we are all in this together. We are all in this boat together. It is not a matter of we can do our part and then we can forget about the rest. So it’s a matter now of putting more pressure on the developed countries to be able to reduce their emissions and the actions that they take to control in rise of temperature on earth.”
Accessing climate finance is another issue. It was agreed to by these larger countries that they would provide one hundred billion dollars yearly to a fund to assist developing countries that are experiencing the impacts of climate change. According to PM Briceño, annually, the fund is forty billion dollars short. He says that countries like Belize need to be able to access these funds for adaptation and capacity building.
Prime Minister John Briceño
“The hundred billion plus per year, that’s supposed to be set aside for financing. We hope, as I said in my speech yesterday, that that should no longer be the goal. That is supposed to be the bench mark that we are supposed to be able to raise more than a hundred billion dollars because the country, the world needs more than a hundred billion dollars for conservation. If you look at what the developed countries have done, they spent trillions of dollars to access energy, oil, coal, and so forth. But yet, not prepared to put the billions of dollars that is needed to be able to protect their very own countries.”
The realities on the ground in Belize are felt by farmers where crop cycles have been disrupted by changes in weather patterns, experienced by coastline communities where lands are being washed away. It is frustrating and PM Briceño’s message was heard.
Prime Minister John Briceño
“Countries like Belize, we have been doing our part. We are protecting our reserves, our land, our waters. But yet, the bigger countries that have developed themselves and living a lavish lifestyle are, in effect, telling us that we can’t do what they have done before because we have to protect mother earth. Because of the changes in temperature, many of our islands are going to disappear. Some of them have already disappeared. We had a bird sanctuary that has completely disappeared. And the hurricanes are becoming more intense, and we could be doing decades of good work, and with one hurricane it would be destroyed. They need to do more! They need to do more and give us the funding. Also, they have to their part in reducing their emissions, so that we can reduce the temperatures on planet earth. I hope that that talk can be translated into action.”
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson, Prime Minister, United Kingdom
“You are right to highlight the issue of people in Belize have been in vulnerable states around the world who are in the frontline that sitting here in line in the fight against climate change. And it’s been very humbling to sit here and to listen over the past week, months, to colleagues Mia Mottley and Bobby, you heard at the UN General Assembly hear her say the same thing. Why should they suffer this immediate impact, this loss and damage because of the emissions that we in our country began to produce her two hundred and fifty years ago.”
PM Briceño says nevertheless, Belize continues to prepare.
Prime Minister John Briceño
“It’s always difficult, but we have to prepare, we have to do our part, we have to have our own technical expert, the expertise. For example, here we are with Five Seas, the Caribbean Climate Change office is also there to help us so that we can have access to funding. Also the endue community in Belize, both the Ministry of Blue Economy, and the Ministry of Sustainable Development, along with the Ministry of Economic Development join together to access funding.”
Reporting from COP26 in Glasgow Scotland, Duane Moody for news five.
