United Nations Radio

Small island states push for inclusion in COP15 agenda

As the Copenhagen Climate talks draw closer, world leaders have been firming up the deals they will be laying on the table. Caribbean islands are among those likely to be most adversely affected if the effects of climate change are not corrected, so UN Radio's Marsha Branch asked what they are hoping to get out of the summit.

NARR: One hundred and ninety-two countries, almost all wanting a deal and wanting it soon. While the Copenhagen climate talks in December are vital, the process will be by no means easy. Many issues are involved and even more is at stake.

While industrialized nations will be setting targets for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, developing countries will be seeking the financial assistance needed to aid their adaptation. The argument is: the industrialized world has caused the problem; they should pay to fix it.

Stephenson King is St. Lucia's Prime Minister and has lead responsibility for climate change in the Caribbean Community.

King: We understand the challenges that the world is faced with at this time, but we believe there are obligations that those developed countries do have to fulfill, and we hope that they would certainly live up to that expectation. China and the United States certainly are the world's greatest emitters, and I am hoping that at some stage critical to Copenhagen that they can come forward and respond to the plea of particularly the small island states.

NARR: The European Commission agrees. Vice President Margot Wallstrom says they want to ensure what she calls climate justice for small island developing states.

Wallstrom: That is, at the core of the debate will be the developing countries right to development and at the same time they will have to be helped financially for both mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Deforestation and the forest issues will have to be part of the deal, because it plays such an important role in emissions.

NARR: So is it fair then to say that the small island developing states have the support of the European Commission?

Wallstrom: Definitely. We don't exactly how the negations will play out, but we have accepted that forestations will have to be covered by a deal also in Copenhagen.

NARR: Also heading to Copenhagen and hoping to have their voices heard will be a group of young people from the Caribbean Youth Environment Network or CYEN. Ningus Megreg is a member.

McGreg: There is the phenomenon of the environmental refugee that is beginning to develop where persons are fleeing from their homelands, because their agricultural lands, their homes are being flooded and taken over by rising sea levels. Say for example, the Caribbean with all its millions of little heads that need to be fed get in canoes and begin to row across the Caribbean sea to the United States because we have no land left to do our farming, our fishing villages are gone. This is something I think that the bigger countries need to consider. We can affect your country.

NARR: Ningus Megreg, a member of CYEN, sharing his message to world leaders who will be attending the upcoming Copenhagen summit on climate change.

Producer: Marsha Branch, United Nations Radio
Duration: 2'48"