‘Do not betray the Paris Agreement’: Dominica prime minister on climate change warpath

Last updated: November 16, 2017 at 17:28 pm

Dominica’s prime minister has continued to urge the international community to come together to fight against climate change during his speech at COP23.

The event – formally known as the 23rd Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – sees national governments, cities, states, businesses meet in an effort to speed up climate action sealed to the Paris climate pact.

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit told the gathering that Dominica had seen the “reality of climate change” when it suffered a direct hit from Hurricane Maria on 18 September – and “within a few hours an entire country was brought to its knees by the forces of nature.”

The storm’s devastation left the island “worse than a war zone”, he added, citing assessments that indicate 90% of buildings have been damaged and destroyed.

This is coupled with decimation of Dominica’s GDP, wiped out due to severe damage to the agriculture, tourism and housing sectors.

“How many of the countries that continue to pollute the planet had to suffer a loss of 224% of their GDP this year?” asked Skerrit.

“We have been put on the front line by others. We were the guardians of nature. 60% of Dominica is covered by protected rain forests and has been so long before climate change,” he said.

‘Ensure our existence’

Dominica acts as a microcosm of the climate change threat to the world, and the prime minister has called for millions of dollars of assistance so the country can build the world’s first a climate-resilient nation.

“We have grasped the moment to be the change we want in this world. This isn’t a rash promise... it is what we are struggling to do today,” he said.

“But battered as we are we stand before you today awake and tall to the challenge. We ask you not to allow the sceptics to sneer saying ‘I told you COP was all hot air’ and that ‘nothing real will change’.

“I urge you today not to betray the Paris Agreement. Operationalise Paris.”

Earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the catastrophic effects of climate change were already plaguing the world.

His tour begins in Antigua before he heads to Barbuda and the British Virgin Islands, finishing his trip in Dominica on Sunday.