THE 26th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) can save the world, once the hypocrisy of the unaccountable “gimme gimme” culture is contained.
This according to Fisherman and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) in a release on Friday.
FFOS said, “This global summit is the ‘live or die’ turning point for all nations and peoples, hypocritical politicians, with hands out like beggars are claiming innocence and victimhood, threatens donor confidence for these initiatives, without accountability there will obviously be no donors.
“We are all to blame. Trinidad and Tobago has a disastrous record of environmental mismanagement thereby increasing greenhouse gas emissions, decreasing our carbon sequestration ability and resilience to the impacts of climate change.
The conservation group stated, “Shamefully, we have a weekly average of two ‘reported’ oil spills and despite legislation commanding fines and sanctions, no culprit has been charged since 2013; we are increasing investments into deep water oil and gas exploration and drilling; we are increasing the removal of mangroves stands to facilitate construction schemes.”
FFOS added, “We have borrowed more money to bulldoze over 360 hectares of Rousillac Mangroves (which absorb 1.5 metric tonnes of CO2 per hectare), for development of a Chinese container trans-shipment facility in La Brea and eyes are now on Tobago for more exclusive resorts on coral reefs and Mangrove stands. Despite our noble commitment to the Paris Agreement, which looks well on paper, we are failing.”
It stated that developed nations should be sanctioned and held liable for failure to meet their financial responsibilities of US $100 billion annually especially since they are primarily responsible for the chaos, but they should not be taken for fools.
“The Caribbean is a shared space that suffers a similar fate of climate change impact, therefore we need synchronized legislation for environmental management and sustainability initiatives.”
FFOS said, “Developed nations should not give until, the Regional squander-mania is controlled with synchronized regional procurement legislation, there inclusive and transparent planning and management of the funds and there is synchronized environmental and waste management legislation throughout the region.”
The group questioned “Why give to nations who cry wolf begging for climate change support while at the same time engage in accelerated rubber-stamping approvals of new extractive activity?
“When we have almost no mechanisms to increase our resilience to rising sea level, coastal erosion, fishery/species displacement, and extreme weather patterns.”
