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  • 1 year ago
Mia Mottley uses COP's 29 platform to call for carbon levies and urges leaders to clamp down on methane production. The first high level meeting took place in Baku on Tuesday with world leaders presenting their positions.
Transcript
00:00The first COP 29 high-level meeting of world leaders took place today with UN
00:05Executive Secretary Simon Steele saying there has been a seismic shift in the
00:10global climate crisis as it is no longer a future issue. The climate crisis is
00:16fast becoming an economy killer right now, today, in this political cycle.
00:25Climate impacts are carving up to 5% of GDP in many countries. The climate
00:34crisis is a cost-of-living crisis because climate disasters are driving up
00:41costs for households and businesses. Climate change has been unraveling with
00:47some countries experiencing extreme heat, uncontrollable wildfires and floods over
00:53the past 12 months, leading to the loss of homes, livelihoods and even lives.
00:58And global warming is unequivocally caused by human activities through
01:03emissions of greenhouse gases that arise from unsustainable energy use, land use
01:08and land use change and lifestyle patterns. The extremes we are witnessing
01:15have been aggravated by human-induced climate change. This is the new normal.
01:21Imagine what is in store in the coming decades if we don't act swiftly and
01:26decisively. Leaders from across the world presented their positions at the
01:30high-level meeting with Suriname and Barbados advancing the CARICOM and CIDS
01:35position. President of Suriname, Chandrika Prasad Santokhi says his
01:40country is on a path of sustainability as a carbon-negative nation. Our forest
01:47still covering 93% of our territory act as a vital carbon sink, absorbing more
01:55carbon dioxide than our economy emits and we are committed to stay carbon
02:03negative. CARICOM and CIDS nations are facing the injustice of a crisis. They
02:10didn't cause a crisis, they cannot solve alone even with their best efforts to
02:18cut their emissions which are now lower than 1%. He joined other leaders in
02:25highlighting the dire need for developed countries to act now as most CARICOM
02:29countries lack the capability to recover from climate impacts. CARICOM calls for
02:35a binding commitment to allocate at least 15% of climate finance to CIDS
02:40instead of the unacceptable 1.5% CIDS now receive. We call for easier, more
02:48tailored access to climate financing for CIDS including simplified applications,
02:53capacity building, direct funding and affordable financing. The Prime Minister
02:59of Barbados, Mia Motley reflected on the damaged hurricane barrel and the earliest
03:04category 5 hurricane on record did to her country and other regional
03:08territories. We must change the rules of the game, shockproof vulnerable economies
03:13and indeed review debt sustainability while at the same time augmenting
03:18resources. Fourthly, rich countries must deliver on their commitments. She
03:24proposes levies be considered. If we put a $5 per tonne on CO2 for fossil fuel
03:33extraction, we can raise $210 billion a year. If we put $100 per tonne on CO2 for
03:40shipping, we can raise in excess of $80 billion a year and we've not addressed
03:45aviation or indeed the elephant in the room, a 0.1% levy on all bonds and stocks
03:54that can raise us in excess of 400 million, 400 billion. And efforts should
03:59be made to clamp down on methane production. Methane is responsible for
04:0445% of current global warming and it's 80 times as devilish as CO2 with
04:11respect to warming the planet. This makes it mitigation of methane the most
04:16effective way to slow the rate of warming in our world and I trust and
04:20pray that we can have a global methane agreement as Pope Francis led the call
04:25earlier this year for us to see a parallel track to decarbonization.
04:31Trinidad and Tobago is not represented at COP 29 by any government official.
04:37Ravishi Tiwari, Rupnirayan TV6 News.
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