By: Staff Writer
October 6, 2023
The Prime Minister of The Bahamas urged countries in the region to strengthen ties to combat the climate change battle at The IV Inter-American Meeting of Ministers and High-Level Authorities on Sustainable Development.
Philip Davis, KC, said at the opening of the meeting that “reforms” are needed for the Organisation of American States if it must fight climate change. He added: “If the OAS is to maintain its relevance for the small island and low-lying coastal developing states among its membership, it must do more to support climate action across the Americas.”
Mr Davis also said: “We similarly declare our joint priorities for climate action and discuss how we will collaborate to implement the Plan for Climate Action in the interest of sustainable development.
“The people of our region are strong and resilient, but we will need more support to overcome the formidable climate challenges that lay before us.
“We welcome the proposal for the OAS to provide capacity building and greater support to Member States, especially smaller countries, to access climate finance through establishing a Hub for Climate Finance.
“And we welcome these new mandates for climate action within the OAS and wider inter-American system and are pleased that we will be adopting them at this meeting here in The Bahamas – one of the vulnerable nations at ground zero taking progressive action in the fight against climate change.”
Meanwhile, he also addressed the crisis in Haiti. “Just south of The Bahamas, we have the ongoing instability in Haiti, and throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, the scourge of crime continues to claim far too many lives. We also have a growing debt crisis that threatens the fiscal health of developing nations throughout the region.
“In January, I stood in the House of the Americas at OAS Headquarters in Washington DC, and issued a call to action for the Americas to address our most pressing regional challenges while making progress on needed institutional reforms at the OAS.
“We must strengthen hemispheric ties, provide more support for Member States, and agree on united action to advocate for change on the world stage, especially in regard to climate change.”
Also addressed was the need for finance reform for small, developing states to help them to fight the effects of climate change. “As new innovations and opportunities emerge, there is a clear intersection where investing in climate resilience is the answer to making progress on a range of our most pressing development goals, such as renewable energy, food and water security, and protecting and empowering our most vulnerable populations.
“We must take this challenge on while confronting the many competing challenges within this hemisphere,” he said.