Photo by Ayanna Kinsale. Retrieved from newsday.co.tt

Excerpt and photo from newsday.co.tt

The global response to climate change reveals a troubling paradox that deserves public attention and action from Minister of Planning and Development Pennelope Beckles.

The 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties, more commonly known as COP29 and being held in Azerbaijan, has not only been controversial as a location, but there has been no significant improvements to date to report.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like TT, which cumulatively contribute less than one per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, face existential threats from rising seas and extreme weather, while major polluters continue to drag their feet on climate action and financial commitments.

Even more perplexing is the ludicrous expectation that our small nations invest their scarce resources in carbon-reduction initiatives. This defies both logic and justice. Asking countries with negligible emissions to further reduce their carbon footprint while major polluters dawdle and deflect is akin to asking someone who takes one drop from a flowing river to use their limited means to take even less.

These resources would be far better spent on critical adaptation measures to protect our vulnerable populations.

Eight years after the Paris Agreement, developed nations have failed to deliver on their promised US$100 billion annual climate finance to vulnerable nations. Instead of honouring these commitments, we see a pattern of delay and distraction, and demands for ever increasing project justifications.