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News : Bahamas Information Services Updates Last Updated: Sep 15, 2019 - 2:08:16 AM


UN Secretary General Visits The Bahamas to Assess Damage from Hurricane Dorian
By Llonella Gilbert, BIS
Sep 15, 2019 - 2:04:49 AM

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United Nations Secretary General António Guterres and Prime Minister the Most Hon. Dr. Hubert Minnis, with a number of officials, in meetings at the Office of The Prime Minister, September 13, 2019. The Secretary General is visiting The Bahamas to assess the damage from Hurricane Dorian. (BIS Photos/Yontalay Bowe)

NASSAU, The Bahamas – United Nations Secretary General António Guterres expressed the solidarity of the United Nations and the international community with the government and people of The Bahamas after the unrelenting onslaught of Hurricane Dorian.

“I bring our deepest condolences to those who have lost loved ones and our sympathy to the many others who have lost their homes and communities,” the Secretary General said during a press conference held after a meeting with Prime Minister the Most Hon. Dr. Hubert Minnis and officials at the Office of the Prime Minister, September 13, 2019.

The Secretary General explained that during the meeting, Prime Minister Minnis told him about the government’s comprehensive response and the courage and commitment of Bahamians during these very difficult times.

He noted that UN Humanitarian agencies are on the ground supporting the government’s efforts.Weather permitting, the Secretary General was expected to see the impact and to assess what more the UN can do.

The Secretary General also expressed appreciation for the quick and impressive support of many entities in the international community, and in particular countries in the Caribbean who have faced similar situations in the past.

He explained that this is a new era of climate crisis where hurricanes and storms are turbo charged.“They happen with greater intensity and frequency that are a direct result of warmer oceans.

“July 2019 was the hottest month ever.The period from 2015 to 2019 is on track to be the hottest five years since records began, and every week brings news of climate related devastation.”

He also noted that the arctic permafrost is melting decades earlier than even the worst case scenarios; in Japan last month, almost a million people were evacuated because of flooding; from the arctic to the amazon, wild fires blaze as a result of record high temperatures; and Africa’s long term drought is a growing reality creating hunger and insecurity.

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“This climate emergency packs a triple punch.First, the impact is in countries with the lowest greenhouse emissions – The Bahamas is a very good example of that.Second, it is the poorest and most vulnerable people in those countries who suffer most and again, the same has happened to those communities here in The Bahamas.

“Third, repeated storms trap countries in a cycle of disaster and debt.The financial cost of the damage caused by Dorian is not clear but it will be in the billions of dollars and The Bahamas cannot be expected to foot this bill alone.”

He stated, “These new large scale climate disasters demand a new multilateral response; climate financing is one element; we must reach a target of one billion dollars per year from public and private sources for mitigation and adaption in the developing world, as rich countries have been promising for nearly a decade, and we must improve access to development financing.”

The Secretary General said in cases like The Bahamas, he strongly supports proposals to convert debt into investment in resilience.Concessional financing must be made available to countries that are vulnerable to extreme weather events.

“This is something that we have been working really hard to make the international community fully support.”

He also stressed that the entire international community must address the climate crisis through rising ambition and action to implement the Paris Agreements.

“The best available science as reported by the intergovernmental panel on climate change says that we must ensure collectively that global temperature rise does not go beyond 1.5 degrees and it says that we have a window of less than 11 years to avoid irreversible climate disruption and that we must reduce emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

He stated that he is asking all leaders to gather at the climate summit with plans not speeches in New York in one week’s time: plans to commit to carbon neutrality as soon possible, and plans to raise the so-called national determined country contributions to reduce emissions or improve adaptation.”

The Secretary General said, “This is battle for our lives but it is a battle we can and we must win.”Solutions exist, he said, but for them to be achieved utilization of fossil fuels across the world must decrease.



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