Conference of the Parties—More than just ‘ole talk’

Jean-Marc Ram­per­sad

While it is the opin­ion of many that the an­nu­al Con­fer­ence of the Par­ties is just idle talk, it still serves as a plat­form for the Al­liance of Small Is­land States (AO­SIS) to voice their con­cerns and de­mand ac­count­abil­i­ty for the cli­mate cri­sis. Yes­ter­day, Guardian Me­dia spoke with Una­May Gor­don, who func­tions in many roles in the re­gion—Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty Cli­mate Change Cen­tre (CC­C­CC) Ad­vi­sor, a mem­ber of the Be­lize del­e­ga­tion for COP30, and co-fa­cil­i­ta­tor for the agri­cul­ture dis­cus­sions on be­half of Be­lize. She af­firmed, “I was at COP 6, which was my first COP, and I can say that progress has been made. Al­so, we can say old talk, but if we are not at the ta­ble fight­ing for what we are fight­ing for, then we al­low the de­ci­sions to be made for us, and the de­ci­sions are not al­ways in our favour.”

Gor­don as­sert­ed that the Caribbean, and Small Is­land States on the whole, must be present at these dis­cus­sions to shape the way for­ward. Al­so, the Na­tion­al­ly De­ter­mined Con­tri­bu­tions (ND­Cs) may be the most hon­est doc­u­ments that we have in the process. Gor­don be­lieves that the 1.5-de­gree agree­ment is still rea­son­able and the Caribbean has to ‘hold the line’.