I got to travel for my first time to the Carribean - a place of many islands and spices. I had a meeting in Grenada because they are the Chair of AOSIS which is the Alliance of Small Island States, a coalition of vulnerable small island countries that have been negotiating long and hard to make sure their voices are heard to stop the threat of climate change. AOSIS were also largely responsible for ensuring that developed countries take on legally binding targets in the Kyoto Protocol. With so much to lose AOSIS has been preparing for the road to Copenhagen and my job is to support them through scientific and technical advice along with my colleagues.Visiting the Carribean was amazing, as we flew over Barbados it was unbelievable to see how flat of the island is. We also toured around Grenada and saw the devastation that Hurricane Ivan caused in 2004, most of the homes were destroyed and the the impact on the forest is still noticeable. Hurricanes don't usually come to Grenada because they are so close to the equator. They are still trying to recover (although the Chinese did build the cricket stadium in time for the world cup -South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Sri Lanka all played there!)
The Prime Minister, who opened the meeting, gave a really inspiring speech about the need to get a good agreement in Copenhagen in line with the AOSIS request to stay below 1.5degrees C. Australia only just recently signed up to the 2degrees C target that the European proposed back in 1996 as part of the Major Economies Forum but this will still be too much particularly for coral reefs which will suffer a lot due to ocean acidification when the pH levels in the oceans rise due to t
he accumulation of CO2.The meeting was really successful and I left the spice island with rum, nutmeg (the national spice), full of local fish and hope that we really will get an agreement in Copenhagen because there are some hardworking and inspiring negotiators who want to make a difference. All it will take is political will to get there - because the technology is already available (and I'm not talking about nuclear!)
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Oh Grenada! One of my fave isles! Glad you got to visit it, did you notice how much they love their country? Flags painted everywhere and we love Grenada written on almost every sign-post. They love God to of course, but when you have been battered by the elements as much as they have and have roughly 50% of Grenandians living outside of Grenada - you have to hold onto something!
ReplyDeleteHopefully see you guys soon! Kirsten try not to work so hard, there is life after CPH!!! and probably more to do too, pacing yourself is important! karim xx