Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kerrie Symmonds wants to see reinforced dialogue on climate change with regional and global partners.
A guest on yesterday’s Starcom Network radio call-in programme Sunday Brass Tacks, the senior minister admitted that one of his major recent concerns was the view of the United States on the Blue Green Bank initiative.
“Sometimes I think there is a need for us to sit and again reinforce dialogue as a means of communication to some of the concerns that we have, so that policy initiatives do not collide with genuine ambition,” he said.
“An example of one which has bothered me deeply in recent times is that which has been called a rescission coming out of the White House.
“[It] basically says our effort to create a Blue Green Bank, which effectively is about helping countries like ours with a similar threat towards the vulnerability of the changing climate, to be able to access, at low-cost financing, the type of money that is necessary to build the boardwalks, to reinforce our beaches and to protect them from coastal erosion . . . is something almost akin to a swindle. The term they use is grift. They say that this is not a core priority of the Americafirst ambition and therefore partnership through USAID (United States Agency for International Development) is something which cannot happen for us.”
Symmonds said Government was looking towards $400 million in partnership on this particular initiative.
“We don’t exclusively rely on the US. We are not asking the US for charity, but what we are seeking is a level of partnership, but if the perspectives do not gel on these matters, then we have to proceed alone.
“That is the diplomatic challenge that we have and what we cannot do is to imperil the lives and wellbeing of those people in our community who must see a Government taking sensible and responsible responses to these challenges.”
The senior minister cited the devastation in Jamaica from Hurricane Melissa last month.
“What happened in Jamaica is a clear example. That north-western part of Jamaica got wiped out and the rebuild process now comes at great cost.
“ Another aspect, of course, is to be able to have the kind of catastrophe drawdown option in advance, so that there’s a threshold that must be met . . . . You’re able then to get an agreed sum of money so that you can immediately start the rebuild process, rather than just having to sit and rest on your laurels for three to six months while you go through the process of trying to work through the finances of coming to the assistance of people whose lives have been compromised.
“That sense of urgency and immediacy is also a diplomatic issue and these are the things that we know [we need to] engage with the wider world on.”
The minister defended the high level of overseas travel by members of Government, saying it is to facilitate discussions to advance the country.
“(For) those who criticise the Government, saying that we travel too much, we travel in large measure to deal with those kind of conversations and to build alliances.
“We cannot by ourselves be so influential in the eyes of the United States and others that we can overwhelm them, but what we must do is to have them be aware of numbers, so that people come around to the understanding that there are some small countries which are facing absolute annihilation . . . .
“We are trying to build relationships with the wider world, and particularly the multilateral financial institutions worldwide, to try to ensure that there is a better understanding of the threat that we are under and the need for us to have a response mechanism that enables us to do the things we must ordinarily do.”
Symmonds added: “We have to run schools or hospitals, develop our public transport infrastructure, but at the same time, in the space of two or three hours, you can have untold damage being done and your country set back by five or ten years and you have to begin that process of rebuilding all over again.”
(SG)
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