Bahamas Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell tackled the world’s most active polluting countries on Thursday, telling the United Nations General Assembly that a major shift on the part of these nations is the only chance that small island developing states have to survive.
Scientific evidence suggests that climate change, in most cases caused by pollution, is directly responsible for many of this season’s hurricanes which have wreaked havoc on The Bahamas and several other Caribbean nations.
“The damage to homes, infrastructure, the interruption to normal life and commerce compel us to stress the need for immediate and dramatic measures to ensure reconstruction and rehabilitation,” he said. “What has been an offer to the region so far is woefully inadequate.”
Just this week, U.S. President George Bush revealed a plan to direct $50 million towards countries in this region lashed by hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.
The proposed allocation is actually part of a much larger hurricane relief aid package to the tune of $7.1 billion that Mr Bush wants Congress to approve.
Like many other Caribbean representatives who spoke before him, Mr. Mitchell brought Haiti’s and Grenada’s cases to the forefront. The two countries are facing an overwhelming crisis as in the case of the former over 200,000 people are starving and homeless and for the latter, there is hardly any revenue generating capabilities.
The Bahamas has suggested a donor conference, where international bodies would make various levels of financial commitments for hurricane relief and reconstruction.
Officials here are also in favour of the creation of a Regional Disaster Relief Fund and a possible moratorium on Grenada’s debt repayment.
But the foreign affairs minister tempered his remarks by urging hurricane prone countries to plan for eventualities like hurricanes.
“We cannot let a lack of planning be a possible cause of undermining our own sovereignty,” he said. “We lose our dignity if we cannot be seen to help ourselves.”
He said The Bahamas also welcomes any attempt to put climate change higher on the world’s agenda. Britain has been pushing that effort.
The implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Development States adopted at the Global Conference in Barbados in 1994, Mr. Mitchell point out, becomes even more urgent.
Ever since the UNGA has been meeting, the regional heads of state and foreign affairs ministers have been calling for international support for the upcoming Mauritius International Meeting in January.
Nearly half of all small island developing nations have been hit by severe weather disasters over the last two years and many of them have suffered major trade losses due to dismantling of market access preferences.
Minister Mitchell wasn’t the only person from this region to address the issue of climate change. The President of Marshall Islands said that urgent action is needed at the global level to halt and ultimately reverse the devastating impacts of climate change.
In his address, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning also spoke of the vulnerability of Caribbean countries, as did Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, the Prime Minister of St., Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves and St. Lucia’s Minister of External Affairs Julian Hunte.
On Thursday, the news media reported that Russia’s Cabinet approved the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. It essentially clears the way for the Russian Parliament, or Duma, to ratify the document.
Supporting the protocol would mean that it would be put into effect worldwide. It must be ratified by no fewer than 55 countries that accounted for at least 55 percent of global emissions in 1990, and Russia’s participation would tip the scale.
The United States, China and some other big industrial nations have rejected the treaty. It is designed to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which are widely seen as a key factor behind global warming.
Minister Mitchell also used the platform of the UNGA to make the case once again for a level playing field, particularly when “un-elected multilateral bodies exclude developing countries from decision making and norm setting processes.”
He was referring specifically to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], which is against what it calls harmful tax havens.
“The decisions of these bodies are not friendly acts,” he said. “We repeat the call we made last year about the need for a global forum to deal with these unfair practices. We welcome the work that has been done in the Economic and Social Council of the UN to redress the balance in favour of a level playing field.”
Bahamas representatives who are working at the United Nations say they are confident that a new manoeuvre that CARICOM nations are leading to tackle the OECD’s Harmful Tax Project will yield successful results within a few months.
The aim is to convert the United Nations Economic and Social Council from a group of experts acting in their own capacity to a full fledged subsidiary body on tax matters, working in the interests of less developing nations.
But that would mean a U.N. backed resolution.
As for the international community’s response to Haiti, Mr. Mitchell maintained that The Bahamas, for practical reasons, must help to ensure that democracy and justice prevail.
Tameka Lundy, The Bahama Journal
