In: AOSIS In the News
COP 26: Poor countries demand compensation for climate impacts caused by wealthy nations
December 6, 2021As the world is struggling to keep global warming at bay, the issue of who pays for the fallout of climate change is one of the major sticking points in negotiations at the UN climate conference in Glasgow.
Ambassador Prasad (Fiji), Minister Molwyn Joseph (Antigua and Barbuda, AOSIS Chair)
‘A heavy load to carry’: A day in the life of a negotiator at COP26
December 6, 2021Xavier Matsutaro, a negotiator from Palau, is focused on how to get the strongest environmental regulations for carbon markets.
Read MoreConcessional financing must be available to all #SIDS – Al Jazeera
December 6, 2021AOSIS Negotiator, Lia Nicholson: Climate disasters do not bypass vulnerable SIDS that are defined as high income. GDP per capita cannot be applied to climate finance. Concessional financing must be available to all #SIDS in order to build our resilience to climate change.
Read MoreKey goals up in the air as COP26 climate summit ends
December 6, 2021Ambassador Aubrey Webson, AOSIS Chair, speaks. The United Nations’ climate summit is wrapping up Saturday in Glasgow, Scotland. Delegates from nearly 200 nations are attempting to keep the goal of the 2015 Paris climate agreement alive by limiting the threshold of rising temperatures to 1.5 Celsius.
Read MoreMinister Molwyn Joseph on AOSIS Goals
December 6, 2021An interview with the AOSIS Chair on small islands’ key developmental issues and insights on COP26
Read MoreAntigua PM urges developed countries to meet their commitments
December 6, 2021“We are here to deliver on commitments made but we are closing out 2021 with ambition that puts us on a pathway to overshooting the 1.5 goal. Ambition is our litmus test,” Browne told the conference adding that many delegates are of the opinion that they are very close to being 1.5- degrees Celsius compatible.”
Read MoreWhat it’s like negotiating at COP26 as a small island state
December 6, 2021Qui is negotiating on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis). It is a coalition of 39 countries, largely from the Caribbean and South Pacific, including Jamaica, Cuba, Fiji and Antigua and Barbuda.
“We are a group of very small countries that don’t have a significant amount of political leverage,” says Frances Fuller, a negotiator for Antigua and Barbuda. “But we have strength in numbers and the moral high ground – though that’s sometimes not enough to move the needle.”
Rich countries still don’t want to pay their climate change tab
December 6, 2021“There were a lot of very positive statements,” said Janine Felson, deputy head of the Belize delegation and an adviser to the Alliance of Small Island States, a negotiating bloc of 39 island and low-lying countries. “What we are seeing, though, in the [negotiating] room is very different. It’s more business as usual, so rhetoric and deed are far apart.”
Read MoreClimate-vulnerable nations demand more financial support in COP26 draft deal
December 6, 2021Aubrey Webson, U.N. ambassador for Antigua and Barbuda and chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, said the deal needed to be strengthened to help the most vulnerable, particularly with finance to adopt clean energy and cope with climate change impacts.
Read MoreCOP26: Rich countries ‘pushing back’ on paying for climate loss
December 6, 2021Le-Anne Roper, lead negotiator on loss and damage for the Alliance of Small Island States, wants a new finance goal just for loss and damage.
This would be separate from the $100bn (£74bn) already pledged – a target the world has already missed for 2020 which is now set for 2023.