By: Staff Writer
July 7, 2023
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken encouraged Caribbean leaders to keep the pressure on G-7 countries on their climate change commitments.
Mr Blinken, speaking at the CARICOM’s 50th Anniversary Summit in Trinidad and Tobago, said that after President Biden re-entered the US to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change he has dedicated “unprecedented resources,” through their Inflation Reduction Act, which he likens to the “largest commitment,’ by any country on climate change.
Mr Blinken also said: “Each of the countries in the G-7 has actually adopted plans that if implemented, and that’s an important if will actually help keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. We need other major economies outside of the g7 to do the same. Your partnership, your leadership In pressing the biggest emitters to make the necessary commitments, and then holding us to those commitments, that is indispensable and we really deeply value the work that you’re doing on that score.”
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is the most significant climate legislation in US history, offering funding, programmes and incentives to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy and will likely drive significant deployment of new clean electricity resources. Most provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 became effective this January 1, 2023.
The Inflation Reduction Act incentives reduce renewable energy costs for organisations like Green Power Partners – businesses, nonprofits, educational institutions, and state, local, and tribal organisations. Taking advantage of Inflation Reduction Act incentives, such as tax credits, is key to lowering GHG emission footprints and accelerating the clean energy transition.
Mr Blinken also said: “We’re working to build greater resilience and adaptation to climate change while accelerating the region’s transition to clean energy. This is the driving focus between the partnership we established, the US/Caribbean partnership to address the climate crisis 2030, a programme that we launched last year to try to make energy systems cleaner, more resilient, more affordable, like geothermal projects in Dominica and St Kitts and Nevis, solar microgrids, in St Lucia, electric vehicles in Barbados, and Jamaica and Suriname.”
There will also be a greater investment in disaster preparedness, including ensuring for better response times and early warning systems as well as developing risk maps to determine which areas are most likely to be hit by storms.
He also said: “We are working to expand access to international finance. This is something we heard so powerfully from a number of you both in Los Angeles and in other meetings, we’ve heard loud and clear that the scale and disproportionate impact of the climate crisis demands a new approach. We agree. A year ago, Treasury Secretary Yellen and I committed to work with CARICOM to make tangible progress toward the goal. Not simply to recognize the problem, but to actually do something about it. We said that we would press financial institutions to allow countries to defer debt payments in the event of climate shocks, and natural disasters.”
There were also calls to help strengthen the national security of Haiti and the US’s commitment to security in addition to helping the beleaguered nation to muster up the multinational security force it needs to ensure better security for the upcoming national elections.
Mr Blinken also pledged $5.5m to help small farmers in the Caribbean to “boost productivity and increase access to technology and markets and adopt climate smart practices.”
He also pledged higher penalties for gun traffickers where they can serve up to 15 years for both the trafficker and the recipient of illegally trafficked guns. There will also be a Caribbean firearms prosecution coordinator to help deal with the administration of trafficked firearms to the region.