BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IN a message of solidarity to islands in the Caribbean region that were hard hit by Hurricanes Maria and Irma, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Mark Brantley last evening (Sept. 23) told the United Nations General Assembly that the time has come “for the world to treat these phenomena not as natural disasters but as the man-made disasters that they are”.
Speaking against the backdrop of the damage left in St. Kitts and Nevis by Hurricane Maria, Brantley said the science is irrefutable as the oceans continue to get warmer due to “our continued abuse of our Planet Earth”.
Warmer oceans feed and create horrific storms such as Irma and Maria, Brantley emphasized, noting that now, more than ever, “we bear witness to the compelling need to support the call for reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and all other actions and behaviours that aggravate the effects of climate change”.
“Mr. President, climate change for us in the Caribbean is not a matter for academic rumination. The humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Caribbean in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria is stark testimony that Climate Change is not only real, but poses an existential threat to our people, our countries and our civilization. The world has deliberated and negotiated,” he noted.
Brantley reminded that commitments were made and multiple agreements signed in relation to Climate Change - with the most recent Paris Agreement.
Reiterating that the time for more urgent, concrete, tangible and collective action is now, Brantley intimated that it is ironic that the people of the Caribbean region are feeling the effects of changes of which they are least responsible for causing.
“Mr. President, it is the cruelest irony of our times that those of us in the Caribbean least responsible for Climate Change are the ones most disastrously affected by it. We are not major polluters, but we bear the brunt of the effects of such pollution. In every sense, Mr. President, small vulnerable States like Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica and St. Kitts and Nevis continue to be asked, by the world to cash a cheque we did not write.
“In order to attain a sustainable planet, those most responsible for Climate Change through their green house gas emissions and other environmentally harmful practices, must shoulder the responsibility of arresting and ameliorating the consequences. We cannot continue to abuse our Planet and expect to remain unscathed. The people of St. Kitts and Nevis calls upon the global community to pledge itself to pursuing renewable energy with greater alacrity. We must invest in better and stronger homes and buildings. We must grow our economies to allow us greater financial resilience and flexibility.”
According to the Federation Foreign Affairs Minister, the people of St. Kitts and Nevis and the Caribbean deserve and demand the same fundamental right to life and security of their way of life as others anywhere else.
Just recently the White House backpedalled on a commitment to remove the United States from the Paris Agreement.
The Donald Trump-led White House was not in favour with the agreement signed onto by President Barrack Obama, which sees the United States cutting greenhouse gas emissions and assisting countries affected by Climate Change through a fund.
Meanwhile, forecasters had predicted that the sea levels are expected to rise as the Arctic ice continues to melt.
Researchers claimed that the heat levels are expected to rise as climatic conditions change, and this would most certainly affect Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like St. Kitts and Nevis and other nations in the Caribbean region.
