Kamla: PM wrong to blame flooding on climate change

The Opposition Leader has said the PM is wrong to blame climate change for flooding disasters and extreme weather events, as there has only been a 0.5-degree change in the average temperature over the last 32 years.

Kamla Persad-Bissessar made the statement during the UNC’s Monday night Virtual Report.
On Friday in Parliament, Dr Rowley said the cause of the recent flooding was excessively heavy rain which overwhelmed constructed pathways and watercourses.

Persad-Bissessar said the PNM had not done anything to address climate change for the last seven years, but was now blaming it for flooding disasters and extreme weather events.

“The data from our weather stations shows that the average temperature has increased by 0.5 degrees from 1990 to the present over 32 years. So to blame climate change is again false blaming.

"The average annual temperature was about 26.4 degrees Celsius in the years after 1990, and about 26.9 degrees Celsius in the last years before 2021. It has therefore increased only slightly by 0.5 per cent over the last 32 years.

"So the PNM may be hiding behind an excuse, as they always do.”
She noted that the PM had not chosen to attend the UN climate change conference currently taking place in Egypt.

The Opposition Leader said the UNC would implement three funds to address climate change to prepare for the future: a climate trust fund; a national food security fund; and a national infrastructure fund.

The latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis, released on Friday, said emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are responsible for approximately 1.1 degrees Celsius of warming since 1850-1900, and finds that averaged over the next 20 years, global temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming.

The UN said for 1.5 degrees C of global warming, there will be increasing heatwaves, longer warm seasons and shorter cold seasons. It said climate change has already been affecting temperatures, rainfall patterns, and sea levels, thus causing increased flooding, changes in hurricane and monsoon precipitation, flooding in inland and coastal areas, more frequent heatwaves and ocean warming, among other effects.

The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre said as a result of climate change, the Caribbean will experience more frequent and more severe hurricanes and tropical storms; a longer dry season and a shorter rainy season, affecting agriculture and the food supply; a rise in sea levels and coastal flooding, and an increased likelihood of storm surges; intense rain and flash floods; an increase in temperatures; and environmental degradation.

Couva North MP Ravi Ratiram criticised the PM for saying the Social Development and Family Services Ministry continued to work with MPs and councillors to provide temporary food relief to those who have lost food supplies as a result of flooding, which Ratiram said was not happening.

He said the flooding could have been prevented if the government had cleaned watercourses, rivers, and outfall drains.