COP26 – A chance for small island states to speak with one voice

The developed world has created a climate change problem that only it can solve. However, the problem of climate change disproportionately affects small island states like Saint Lucia. Extreme weather patterns of sea level rise, extreme hurricanes and rising temperatures continue to disrupt livelihoods, with few resources available to build resilience, making small island states increasingly dependent of a good world. Saint Lucia’s contribution to global carbon emissions registers no presence, although it has rhetorically committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 7% by 2030.

COP26, the international summit on climate change, will be held in the Scottish city of Glasgow in November 2021. Countries participating in the summit are expected to update their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs): a commitment to action to reduce carbon emissions taken at the COP25 held in Paris six years ago. Saint Lucia Prime Minister Philip J Pierre is expected to attend the summit with 190 world leaders.

While any update to Saint Lucia’s NDC will make no difference to keeping the world on track to meet the COP25 global warming reduction target of 1.5 degrees, its presence along with other Small Island Developing States must ensure that developed countries, major contributors to climate change, clearly understand the negative impact of climate change on its people. Saint Lucia should attend COP26 not just as a country, but as a member of an organized and motivated group of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) if it is to have any moral suasion on developed countries polluting carbon so that they change course quickly. Some already believe that this Glasgow summit may be the world’s last chance to bring runaway climate change under control.

The UK, the host country, could be the catalyst for other countries to step up their efforts to save the world from disaster. The UK has decarbonised its economy faster than any G20 country and has agreed to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the UK by 2030.

Saint Lucia must be prepared for an increase in imports of cheap cars due to this decision by the United Kingdom on petrol and diesel cars. This will certainly have implications for the new car market in Saint Lucia and drive car prices down much the same way used cars imported from Japan did in the 90s.

As a decision-maker and a non-decision-maker, the government of Saint Lucia during its presence at COP26 must be attentive to the fallout of carbon reduction measures taken by developed countries and its likely economic impact, positive and negative, on us. . While COP26 may reduce global carbon emissions, it may also leave us with some abandoned first-world technologies that may be hard to ignore.

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