PM Dickon Mitchell calls for urgent Climate Financing amid rising catastrophes in SIDS

CARICOM Chairman and Prime Minister of Grenada Dickon Mitchell, during an interview held on the sidelines of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, highlighted the Caribbean Community’s primary focus on securing climate financing. 

The Chairman who is presently in Baku attending the Conference of the Parties (COP) ongoing from November 11 to 22 is actively voicing his concerns related to the climate change impacts being faced by the small island developing states and the urgent need for climate financing. 

During the interview, Mitchell outlined that CARICOM’s number one priority at this summit is climate financing and added, “It’s frankly always been our number one priority because I think we live on the front lines of the climatic impacts.”

He also shed light on the fact that massive flooding took place in Grenada while he was speaking. “And we're dealing with the consequences of that and the consequences of the clean up, the disruption, uh, the loss of livelihoods,” said the Prime Minister. 

Raising a question how the SIDS will finance their preparation and response to a situation they have not really created and this is why it is really the priority. 

PM Mitchell Highlights Need for Loss and Damage Funds 

Other things on which the small islands wants to focus were also highlighted by the Prime Minister during the interview. 

These included ensuring that the loss and damage fund is actually scaled up and that the funds are made available and that the rules are straightforward and simple for accessing those funds and critically that they are not debt financing. 

Talking about the existing climate financing systems, Mitchell outlined, “On the existing climate financing systems that exist, there's a lot of fragmentation. There are multiple funds, all of them. The process for accessing the funds is, frankly, a labyrinth. It's extremely difficult. It's extremely cumbersome. And the time frame is, in many instances, quite long. So for us, what we are saying to our partners is we need to combine some of this.”

He emphasized that there is a need to streamline these funds and to shorten the response time, ensuring that the processes are beneficial to the persons who require the funding.

According to the Grenadian leader, if they are measuring success, then all of them are failing. He slammed the developed world, saying, “If I am pledging funds to you if I'm putting the funds in some account, and then the persons who should get the funds don't have access to it. So whether it's from the donor or the beneficiary perspective, we're failing. And we have to recognize that in a sense because the world is not meeting its carbon emissions target.”

Mitchell Urges Developed World to Accept the Harsh Reality Surrounding Climate Change

He also urged the world leaders to accept there are warmer oceans along with rising temperatures, and the ocean is also rising. 

Dickon Mitchell asked everyone to accept this harsh reality and acknowledge that there are going to be more frequent and more dangerous storms and therefore, “We have to live with that, and we have to be able to adapt to those circumstances. And that means getting the financing to adapt, getting the financing to live and to treat with that.”

He again emphasized the necessity of collaboration and partnership from the developed world, saying, “And that is really what we are focused on, and doing so in a manner that is collaborative and that seeks partnership rather than a manner that is, in a sense counterproductive or antagonistic, because we recognize at the end of the day, it's one planet, it's one group, and it may be Grenada today, it may be the Caribbean today, but it's going to be Miami tomorrow. It's going to be Spain the following day. And I think the world is experiencing that. So this is why it's critical for us to really cooperate on those issues.”

When he was asked that some of his colleagues are very frustrated that the developed countries are already what some are calling posturing and stalling, does he have faith in the process that by the end of this year, the Caribbean region might be able to have easier access to climate finance in the region. 

To this, he gave a harsh yet obvious answer, “I mean, my answer to these questions is that the posturing, you know, and the stalling isn't going to change the reality of the hurricanes or the floods or the warmer temperatures, or the fact that people are going to die from heat strokes. So that's the reality.”

He added that so it is a choice whether the world wants to posture or wants to really deal with the action and the concrete steps that are needed. 

Saying that he is ‘frustrated,’ Mitchell noted that from his perspective, he does not have a choice but to not be frustrated because, at the end of the day, he has an island that suffers from this. 

The Prime Minister continued to highlight that this why the solutions are needed even if that means that need to knocking the doors, keep having the conversations and keeping the interactions going even if it is difficult.

Calling it a very difficult journey, he stated, “We know that oftentimes in these things, you're not going to get success. This is not going to be a walk in the park. It never is, and particularly for small island developing states, we're always at a disadvantage, and I think we appreciate that perspective.”

He added that if this is the case, then the developed countries should also manage their expectations because the Caribbean does not expect people to just hand them a check and walk away. 

Mitchell further shared that he thinks, the CARICOM has to demonstrate to the developed world that it is in their best interests to cooperate with them and to also do the financing that they are seeking because there are other consequences such as things like ‘climate refugees’. 

He outlined, “The more poverty you have, the more disruption you have, the more disruption they are going to have to deal with it because human beings are mobile and human nature is such that we are always seeking a better life. So if persons don't support a cooperative partnership approach, then there'll be consequences to that.”

Talking about the recent torrential rains which impacted several of the Caribbean nations including Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago, PM Mitchell said that it is just a testimony to what he is talking about that the islands can have highly unpredictable, erratic, but also highly dangerous weather patterns that have significant impacts that the small islands have to prepare for and respond.

Once again, he said that he is simply doing his best in such circumstances to treat and manage with this ongoing war which is becoming the new reality that the Caribbean people have to live with. 

When asked, “How critical does this become in light of what is happening in Baku?”, the Prime Minister noted that it goes back to the same financing because if the islands will have the financing, then they will be better able to prepare and to respond to those kinds of events.

As the Chairman of the Caribbean Community and the Prime Minister of Grenada, the country which recently faced the wrath of Category 5 Hurricane Beryl, Dickon Mitchell is committed to talk about this harsh reality at all international platforms where he could to make the developed world realize that their urgent help is needed to safeguard the small island developing states and its people.