MPs told to act on UN SDGs

MPs should work across party lines to ensure new laws and other parliamentary action will incorporate UN ideals such as fighting poverty and inequality and saving the environment was the basic message on Thursday at the launch of a seminar for Caribbean parliaments. Participating MPs were promised a tool kit to do so, at the event titled, Strengthening parliamentary action on the sustainable development goals (SDGs.) It was hosted by the TT Parliament and Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU.)

Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George lamented that people’s responses to negative changes in the world has often by denial or mere lone wolf actions.

She noted the idea of humans as a harmful, invasive species to be eradicated by weather patterns acting as an immune system. The remedy to all this, she said, was the power of legislators and activists acting to change those behaviours, attitudes, and narratives. “We are the ones empowered to ignite our citizens, our institutions and our world into action.”

Annisette-George said under the Paris Accord ideal of “Leave no one behind,” countries are now committed to fast-track progress for those furthest behind. The accord is the UN’s agreement to combat climate change.

She gave a roll call to stimulate action on climate change. Firstly, a 2018 report said the world has just 12 years to act against climate change. Secondly, Greenland lost 286 billion tonnes of ice from 1993-2016, while Antarctica lost 127 billion tonnes per year in that period, with a rate that had tripled over the last decade. The Americas have seen more high temperature events in recent times, and the US saw more intense rainfall events. Each year two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide is absorbed by the world’s oceans where acidity has increased by 30 per cent since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

IPU official Barton Scotland, Speaker of the Guyana Parliament, said there is no single path to advance the SDGs which each parliament should integrate into its key parliamentary functions.

“We, parliamentarians, need to continuously ask ourselves what difference our work and actions make for the people and the planet,” Scotland said.

“Do they reflect human rights principles? Do they ensure that the legislative response to climate change is consistent with the aims of the national climate legislation, the Paris Agreement and other societal goals like poverty reduction, gender equality, etcetera?”

Scotland said while the Caribbean has seen a significant drop in poverty in recent years, poverty and inequality persist in several countries.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative in TT Randi Davis urged that MPs screen new legislation to ensure it is in line with the UN developmental agenda. Further, she urged that parliamentary rules allow MPs to interrogate the Government on the achievement of the SDGs locally. Calling on MPs to work across party lines, Davis said, “The world is in a tremendous crisis and needs a whole of society approach.”

ECLAC deputy chief Dillon Alleyne said bipartisan support for the development process is the best way to ensure the sustainability of efforts.

Saying the SDGs should be included in each country’s development plan, he lamented that many Caribbean countries simply do not have long term development plans. Commending the Government pending National Statistical Institute of TT Bill, he said countries need current baseline data to establish benchmarks as they head towards the implementation of the SDGs. He offered ECLAC’s support to the region’s parliaments, echoing that of Davis earlier.