By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 17, 2022 – His Excellency Wendall Jones, Bahamas Ambassador to the United States, participated in a live broadcast and panel discussion this morning at the American University‘s School of International Service on the theme “We Don’t Have Time”, focusing on this year’s United Nations Climate Change conference.
Coming on the heels of the highly successful participation of Prime Minister Philip E. Davis in COP27 in Egypt, Ambassador highlight similar issues and concerns about climate change raised by the Prime Minister in the various sessions in which he participated.
“Small Island Developing States like The Bahamas and those of the Caribbean bear the brunt of the cost and the negative effects of global climate change, which is caused primarily by man-made greenhouse gas emissions,” Ambassador Jones declared. “Indeed, almost half the national debt of The Bahamas has been incurred due to the impact of hurricanes in The Bahamas. Billions of dollars were spent in the last two decades to replace infrastructure destroyed as a result of these storms, which have become more and more dangerous.”
Referring to the Prime Minister’s participation last year in COP 26 in Glasgow, Scotland, Ambassador Jones quoted the Prime Minister as saying: “We are out of time…..promises and agreement are easy. Action requires courage.”
He also quoted remarks made by the Prime Minister at COP27 in Egypt when he said: “Let’s get real. What we need most is to confront the radical truth. Big, ambitious goals are important – but not if we use aspirations to obscure reality. The goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, is on life support. Let’s get real: it’s only going to get worse. We are entering a new climate era that will drive extreme geopolitical and economic instability. Statements without binding commitments or enforcement mechanisms have been used again and again as a way to postpone real action.”
Noting that the Prime Minister called on the world’s wealthiest carbon polluters to pay for the very extensive loss and damage caused by their emissions, Ambassador Jones added: “We in The Bahamas for the most part are victims of climate change as we have been victims of slavery. If we are not careful, we will continue to produce tens of millions of climate refugees. They will put pressure on borders and security and political systems across the world.”
Ambassador Jones said the government of The Bahamas has taken action and passed innovative new legislation to deal with Blue Carbon.
“We have created a regulatory framework for dealing and trading in carbon credits. And other countries are adopting our model. So, in June 2022, the Climate Change and Carbon Market Initiatives Act came into force,” Ambassador Jones said.
He strongly suggested that by working together and collectively listing our blue carbon credits on the Blue Carbon Exchange, we can:
- BIncentivize industrialized nations to reduce carbon emissions.
- Boost our economies with new revenue streams.
- Substantially reduce the cost and impact of climate change on our people.
“In The Bahamas we have perhaps the largest amount of seagrass, mangroves, saltmarshes and wetlands valued at over $30 trillion at today’s carbon price,” Ambassador Jones said.
Noting that the carbon credit market is supposed to offset emissions, Ambassador Jones added: “The Bahamas has the potential to have millions of credits to enter the Carbon Market in the next few years. A company can purchase a large number of credits per year. If they don’t use the credits, they would be able to sell it. What we need now is an equitable framework put together by the International Community to govern carbon credits. This was one of the items on the agenda in Egypt.”
While The Bahamas has national laws in place, Ambassador Jones said that “we are awaiting the international laws to trade carbon credits.”
“It should be noted that The Bahamas has submitted its nationally determined contribution to climate change, Ambassador Jones said, adding: “Under the Paris agreement, every country pledged to update its contribution every five years.”
On the topic of UNDER MITIGATION, Ambassador Jones said: “This has to do with how you are going to reduce greenhouse emissions into the system.”
Declaring that The Bahamas is committed to “a 30 per cent introduction of renewable energy to our electricity grid by 2033,” Ambassador Jones outlined the following goals:
- The Bahamas is transitioning to electric vehicles in the fleet of government vehicles. We want 15 per cent of all vehicles on our streets to be electric vehicles by 2030.
- The Bahamas is declaring 20 percent of our forests as Forest Reserves.
- The Bahamas is rehabilitating our Mangrove Eco-systems.
- We are working with the Hotel Industry to have all of our hotels equipped with green cooling systems.
On the topic of ADAPTATION, Ambassador Jones explained that this “has to do with things like early warning systems, erosion of coastlines, coral bleaching, the delivery of clean potable water, access to food, among other things. Adaptation also has to do with coping with climate change.”
“Today we find that many of the developed countries are pulling back on their commitments to assist developing countries like The Bahamas to address climate change within our borders,” Ambassador Jones said. “Currently, we are funding ourselves to get out of the climate calamity that has been created by the developed countries.”
He added: Out of the $100 billion pledged from COP21, only $12 billion has been produced; $10 billion to mitigation projects and only $2 billion has been donated to adaptation. Countries like The Bahamas have to find the funds to finance mitigation and adaptation. The Bahamas is emitting 0.01 per cent of global greenhouse gases. So, we are certainly not responsible for the devastation caused by climate change, but we are paying for it.”
