COP28 cop-out

THE PRIME Minister’s decision not to attend the upcoming gathering of world leaders on the climate crisis is disappointing.

Dr Rowley announced last month his intention to be at the 28th meeting of the UN’s Conference of the Parties, known as COP28. On Monday he reversed course, saying he would send Pennelope Beckles, Minister of Planning.

The PM’s plans may have been grounded by the fact that he faces pressing challenges at home, most notably crime. His crime talks have not taken off, while murders continue to soar.

The PNM leader may also be sensitive to the political risks of being out of the country for too long, especially with opposition politicians bemoaning the cost of overseas trips in the wake of official engagements in Canada and the Bahamas.

However, Dr Rowley’s recent journey to the Saudi Arabia-Caricom summit in Riyadh was paid for by that Middle Eastern country. On Monday, the PM said staying on to attend COP28, which is being held in the neighbouring United Arab Emirates, would have cost $250,000.

That is nothing when we consider the cost of the climate crisis is potentially catastrophic. The Caribbean Development Portal has estimated the region could suffer losses as high as US$22 billion by 2050.

While the summit is being held abroad, the effects of climate change are being powerfully felt at home. The Meteorological Service and the Ministry of Health a few months ago had cause to issue dire warnings to citizens because of heat. All over the world, records have been broken. Wildfires have broken out. The Arctic is melting. As of October, the year 2023 was on track to be the hottest ever, according to Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

But Dr Rowley is not the only world leader skipping. It seems unlikely Joe Biden and Xi Jinping will attend.

Still, the US and Chinese presidents recently held their own bilateral summit, where they pledged to accelerate efforts to reduce greenhouse gases.

Though TT will not be without representation, the symbolic impact of the PM’s absence is clear. This is especially so as Dr Rowley has just attended a summit with one of the world’s biggest oil producers.

His absence from COP28 undermines the Government’s commitment to transitioning to green energy and to lobbying for climate funding at a moment when the developing world should be pushing, united, on these issues on the international stage.

While recent COP conferences have left a lot to be desired, they remain among our last opportunities to change the fate of the planet. Dr Rowley is missing an important opportunity.

His absence is all too obviously premised on a certainty that scraping the barrel of our energy resources is the way to go.