Local News

Appeal for urgent action

St. George’s, November 1, 2010 (GIS) – A Grenada government minister has identified what he believes is one of the major challenges in the fight to eradicate poverty among the world’s people.

Environment Minister Michael Church has pointed to climate change as standing in the way of lifting people “out of the hell of poverty,’’
and hindering efforts to improve the quality of their lives.

“We must appreciate that anthropogenic climate change presents the greatest and most serious threat to these noble aspirations,’’ Hon.
Church said Monday in St. George’s in remarks at the opening of a meeting of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).

Almost 100 delegates, from AOSIS and non-AOSIS countries from around the world, are attending the two-day informal ministerial meeting.
They include several ministers of the environment and external affairs.

AOSIS, which regards itself as the “moral voice’’ on climate change issues, is chaired by Grenada.

“Let us agree that we are going to take urgent action and persuade the rest of the world to act in the interest of the human species,’’
Minister Church said.

“AOSIS must bring itself and the rest of the world to a place where we all recognize that sustainable development is all the peoples of the earth crave,’’ he added. “It is attainable if we act globally and unselfishly to reverse permanently the unintended results and unanticipated threats of anthropogenic climate change.’’

Minister Church, pointing to the vulnerability of small island states to climate change, said that not only has Grenada had to deal with two hurricanes within an eight-month period in 2004 and 2005, but the country has also been “exposed to increasingly blistering and protracted droughts’’ ever since.

“But Grenada is not singular in its vulnerability experiences,’’ he explained. “Belize, Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana – all have suffered damage as a result of climatic events over the last few months.’’

The Grenada meeting, at the Grand Beach Resort, is preparatory to a major one on climate change that will be held November 29 to December 10 in Cancun, Mexico.

Grenada’s Foreign Minister Peter David, in welcoming remarks on Monday, urged AOSIS members to deepen their resilience in the struggle to reduce their vulnerability to the effects of climate change.

“Grenada,’’ he said, “is where we hope that AOSIS will find its collective voice for Cancun; a voice that will say we value our survival; that we demand financing, technology and capacity building support; and a voice that will say we will not cease until there is a legally binding commitment to a global average temperature increase of well below 1.5.’’

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