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St. George’s, October 29, 2010 – Grenadian diplomat, Dr. Dessima Williams, has said she is delighted that the country was chosen to host the November 1 and 2 ministerial meeting of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).
The Alliance, headed by Grenada, is made up of more than 40 countries spread across the world, all of them highly vulnerable to rising sea levels and other negative phenomena caused by climate change.
They have been seeking common ground as they lobby industrialised to get a legally binding agreement on climate change.
“Every Grenadian should be interested in climate change because it’s real,’’ Dr. Williams told journalists at a news conference in St. George’s. She was accompanied by Sally Anne Bagwhan-Logie, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Foreign Trade and Export Development.
She said the effects of climate change are evident across the country, affecting fish stocks, rivers, beaches and sea levels.
“This is about our whole country. We need the whole country mobilised,’’ said Dr. Williams, the chair of AOSIS and Grenada’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.
In the 18 months Grenada has been at the helm of AOSIS, it has been able to secure assistance for several environmental projects including one aimed at reducing the country’s oil import bill. Others are related reforestation, water and waste disposal at Perseverance.
Grenada’s leadership of AOSIS, said Ambassador Williams, places Grenada as a “concerned active participant in the global community; that we are not just beggars; that we are able to bring intellectual, practical and political common sense to the world stage. That is part of the benefit of what we do.’’
AOSIS, described as the “moral voice for climate change,’’ held a major meeting with industrialized nations in Copenhagen, Denmark, last December. The meeting fell short of the AOSIS desire for a legally binding climate change agreement.
Ambassador Williams said in the 10 months since Copenhagen, there has been “a little movement’’ and expects there will be more at the Grenada meeting, leading eventually in the future to a legally binding agreement.
Close to 70 officials, including some government ministers, will be attending the Grenada meeting. Among them will be representative of both AOSIS and non-AOSIS countries.
“Our objective is to develop a level of common agreement among the countries,’’ said Dr. Williams. “The idea is that we’ll look at all the five major areas of the negotiations and come up with our positions.’’
Over the two days, delegates will be addressed by Grenada’s Prime Minister Hon. Tillman Thomas, with sessions to be chaired by Foreign Minister Peter David, and Environment Minister, Michael Church.
Meanwhile, efforts are continuing to raise the level of environmental consciousness among Grenadians.
Permanent Secretary Bagwhan-Logie said a Community Project Officer has been hired to sensitise people about issues around environmentally friendly practices.
“Someone to go down at the community level and make them to understand that the rivers and the beaches belong to them,’’ she said. “It’s a very daunting task but we have to start somewhere.’’
