By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS
lmunnings@tribunemedia.net
PRIME Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis and his delegation are set to leave for COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt today.
Mr Davis will be there amongst world leaders from November 6 to 12.
Yesterday, press secretary Clint Watson clarified that there are 70 people representing The Bahamas at the conference and they are not solely government officials.
He said the private sector makes up a larger portion of the delegation set to travel.
The delegation includes Mr Davis, Attorney General Ryan Pinder, Agriculture and Family Island Affairs Minister Clay Sweeting and a number of other people, including a strong youth presence, officials from the Department of Meteorology, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Foreign Affairs.
According to Mr Watson, 37 people from the private sector set to travel are from non-government organisations, environmental groups and individual persons.
The government is only paying for its technical members to attend the event as others who are going are being funded by the private sector.
“The prime minister’s delegation will include ten people when he leaves here on Friday, so that’s important, so, we put it in context that it’s not 70 persons from the government travelling to COP27,” Mr Watson said.
Mr Davis is set to deliver his speech to a conference of parties next Tuesday.
“Prime Minister Davis will focus on the continued push in The Bahamas to fight climate change and an update on the public strides made since travelling to COP27 last year,” Mr Watson said.
Environment and Natural Resources Minister Vaughn Miller is not attending the conference because he will be at another event in Canada.
Asked why Mr Miller is not going to COP27, Mr Watson said: “This year COP27 takes along a more technical line and that’s why we have such a strong presence of technical officers who are there.
“Because they’re the ones who have been working on the documents, they are the ones who have been at various meetings throughout the year, negotiating, understanding what’s required to be in place in order to ensure that we have that kind of presence there to make sure that we sign on these agreements.
“That we’re on the table, our technical officers need to be there. That’s the priority.”
When asked by reporters why the Minister of State for the Environment would not be able to attend in the absence of the minister, Mr Watson was unable to answer.
Mr Watson spoke on behalf of Mr Miller in regard to the 2019 oil spill in Grand Bahama.
He said the government has since been to assess the damage on the Equinor grounds and afterwards samples were collected by experts and sent to Florida for assessment.
“The samples collected were sent to Florida for analysis to the accredited lab.
“There’s oil staining on the rocks and vegetation, they have no toxic components as it was analysed and natural attenuation is dealing with it.
“But the report on those samples have come back and those are not oil from Equinor.
“There is no oil on the ground, what was visited and seen are stained rocks, vegetation and soil. And that happens because of natural attenuation,” he said.
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