Caribbean prepares common position for fossil fuel transition talks

RYAN BA­CHOO

Lead Ed­i­tor - News­gath­er­ing

ryan.ba­[email protected]

Se­nior gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials and civ­il so­ci­ety lead­ers met in Gros-Islet, Saint Lu­cia, on March 2 and 3 for the Caribbean Con­ven­ing on a Glob­al Just Tran­si­tion from Fos­sil Fu­els.

The meet­ing ad­dressed re­gion­al co­or­di­na­tion ahead of the First In­ter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Tran­si­tion­ing Away from Fos­sil Fu­els, sched­uled for April 24 to 29 in San­ta Mar­ta. The con­fer­ence will be co-host­ed by Colom­bia and the Nether­lands and was an­nounced at COP30 in Belém, Brazil.

Par­tic­i­pants dis­cussed gov­er­nance, fi­nance and im­ple­men­ta­tion is­sues linked to a glob­al phase-out of oil, gas and coal. The 2025 UN­EP Pro­duc­tion Gap Re­port projects gov­ern­ments will pro­duce 120 per cent more fos­sil fu­els by 2030 than is con­sis­tent with lim­it­ing warm­ing to 1.5°C.

Caribbean coun­tries were part of ne­go­ti­a­tions that se­cured the 1.5°C lim­it un­der the Paris Agree­ment and are among 18 coun­tries in dis­cus­sions on a pro­posed Fos­sil Fu­el Treaty.

Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor Dr James Fletch­er, Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty Cli­mate Change Cen­tre, said Caribbean states have ad­vo­cat­ed for the 1.5°C goal and Loss and Dam­age. He said a tran­si­tion must in­clude con­ces­sion­al fi­nance, debt re­form, en­er­gy ac­cess, re­new­able en­er­gy ex­pan­sion and so­cial pro­tec­tion.

Mean­while, Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor of the Fos­sil Fu­el Treaty Ini­tia­tive, Alex Rafalow­icz, said the 1.5°C lim­it is at risk and cit­ed coal, oil and gas ex­pan­sion as dri­vers of emis­sions, pub­lic health im­pacts and pol­lu­tion.

The meet­ing served as a prepara­to­ry ses­sion for San­ta Mar­ta. Day one in­clud­ed civ­il so­ci­ety rep­re­sen­ta­tives re­view­ing sci­en­tif­ic, le­gal and mul­ti­lat­er­al is­sues and defin­ing pri­or­i­ties. Day two brought se­nior gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials to­geth­er to out­line el­e­ments of a re­gion­al po­si­tion.

Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer of the Ja­maica En­vi­ron­ment Trust, Dr There­sa Ro­driguez-Mood­ie, re­ferred to im­pacts from Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa in Ja­maica, in­clud­ing dis­place­ment, in­fra­struc­ture dam­age and dis­rup­tion of util­i­ties.

Caribbean Cen­tre for Re­new­able En­er­gy and En­er­gy Ef­fi­cien­cy's Chief Tech­ni­cal Ad­vi­sor Ms Char­lin Bodlee, said Caribbean states face a cli­mate fi­nance gap and re­ly on loan-based fund­ing. She called for grant fi­nance, debt-sen­si­tive mech­a­nisms and struc­tures to sup­port the tran­si­tion.

Par­tic­i­pants said any glob­al frame­work must re­flect eq­ui­ty and sup­port for small is­land de­vel­op­ing states.