[dropcap]S[/dropcap]aint Lucia has made a strong appeal at COP22 for the urgent need for Developing Countries to access funding to deal with climate adaptation and mitigation before the year 2020. When she addressed a COP22 Climate Change Financing Forum hosted by Britain and Australia on Wednesday, November 16, 2016 Saint Lucia’s Minister for Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development Honourable Dr. Gale T.C. Rigobert reinstated that Climate Change was already existing and ongoing.
“Yes, small islands such as ours are excited about the USD one billion pledge by 2020 but the concern remains that we are already experiencing the effects of Climate Change. Can we afford to wait to for these monies for adaptation and mitigation interventions? Should we not therefore give active consideration, urgent consideration rather, to a pre-2020 formula for raising necessary finance to embark on urgently needed interventions in the area of adaptation and mitigation?”
Dr. Rigobert reinstated the sentiments of Prime Minister Honourable Allen M. Chastanet, for an urgent approach towards helping developing countries.
“PM Allen Chastanet too in his delivery on Tuesday evening underscored the need for urgency that small islands like ourselves did not have the luxury of time; that the effects of Climate Change were real, already happening, already chiselling away at whatever economic gains we have made. We have already experienced loss of life because of adverse weather systems related to Climate Change, so we need a pre-2020 modality to deal with the existing and ongoing effects of Climate Change.”
The twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) which was hosted in Marrackech, Morocco concludes today Friday, November 18, 2016.
