The Tribune

By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The Prime Minister has renewed his charge that there is a “disparity” between the climate changes pledges made by developed countries and the financing required by small island states such as The Bahamas.

Philip Davis KC, in an interview with the CNBC business network that aired yesterday, reiterated that this nation is potentially “doomed to a watery grave” if the world collectively fails to work together in mitigating or reversing the impact of climate change.

He said: “If nothing is done I can see my people becoming climate refugees or being doomed to a watery grave. Because if nothing happens, that is our future, so I’m passionate about it. Others may not see it that way. So the time has come for us to find a mechanism where political attitudes, political change will not reverse or retard progress on this front.”

A United Nations (UN) foreign debt specialist last year said The Bahamas is still paying off debt related to three separate hurricane restoration efforts, adding that this nation is almost trapped in a debt cycle due to damage inflicted by more severe and more frequent hurricanes. Once it finishes paying-off debts incurred with recovering from one storm, another strikes.

And Bahamian environmental advocates have argued there is “no way” that the $700m pledged thus far to the climate change ‘loss and damage’ fund, which was agreed at the recent Cop28 UN climate change conference, is sufficient to even cover this nation’s needs.

The host country, the United Arab Emirates, pledged $100m, which was matched by Germany and surpassed by both Italy and France. The world’s third-largest economy, Japan, pledged $10m, and the US $17.5m, while China has yet to make a commitment.

Mr Davis said that although small island states can see the commitment from large countries, which are responsible for the majority of the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming, there is still a vast disparity between what has been pledged to the ‘loss and damage fund’ to-date and the estimated $400 billion needed by small island states to combat climate change.

He said: “At least we now see a full engagement to fund the loss and damage fund. We see that commitment But at COP, what was pledged was about $429 million; I think that was the total. What is needed is about $400bn each year. So, you can see the disparity there.”

Rashema Ingraham, of Waterkeepers Bahamas, previously told Tribune Business that “a lot more” financing from the world’s wealthiest nations, who are also the greatest polluters and contributors to the climate emergency, is required given that this sum covers just over 20 percent - or one-fifth - of the loss and damage that Hurricane Dorian is estimated to have caused in September 2019.

While the agreement to establish the ‘loss and damage’ fund was heavily lauded on the first day of COP28, the United Nations (UN) climate summit, Ms Ingraham said the $700m pledged so far “will not be” adequate and pales into insignificance compared to global needs.

“So much damage has been done already, and we’re not just talking about one country like The Bahamas,” she told this newspaper. “There are so many countries looking for compensation. There’s no way $700m raised in that first week is going to be sufficient.” When this sum was compared to Dorian damage and loss estimates, she added: “You can now see how far that commitment will go.”