Ministry of Climate Change Will Seek Monies from COP 29  

In a few months, delegates from across the world will gather for COP-Twenty-nine in Azerbaijan to discuss how climate change continues to impact our environment and way of life. The Ministry of Climate Change will attend with specific goals it wants to be addressed. Today Minister Habet said that if Belize is to learn from other countries’ recent experiences, it must better prepare for climate change impacts and to do that, it wants to seek finance for adaptation and to build resilience to climate change.

 

Orlando Habet, Minister of Climate Change

“We saw what happened recently in our small islands, St. Vincent and others, where they were devastated by the high tides and the hurricane. And so we have to start to push together and try to make certain that the global community is aware of what’s happening to us. And so that we can gain their support. Finance is something that is always on the agenda but takes a lot of time and effort to be able to gain the finances that we really need.  But I think if we stick together as groups, as teams, for example, SIDS are over sixty-four countries. If we stick together with the SICA countries, the Caribbean, maybe in the entire Western Hemisphere, we could gain more support, but nobody will give you monies if it’s not well spent. So, for adaptation projects especially, these projects have to be resilient, so that you don’t implement an adaptation project that will be washed away or blown away with the next hurricane or flooding event, for example. So, they want to see that the money is well spent, so it has to be well planned out. We need to also push further for the loss and damage fund to be implemented. We need to find out what is the modality, how do you qualify and how that money will be disbursed without the problems that we have encountered for other financing mechanisms.”