The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

FEWER than 20 people will be a part of the delegation attending COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, next week, far fewer than the group of 70 that represented the country in Egypt during last year’s event.

The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference will take place from November 30 to December 12.

The delegation includes Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis, Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell, Energy and Transportation Minister JoBeth Coleby-Davis and the technical team members.

Environment and Natural Resources Minister Vaughn Miller was not announced as part of the delegation, suggesting he would miss the event for the second year.

According to Rochelle Newbold, special advisor on climate change and environmental matters, youth will not travel due to security concerns.

“This is a direct cause of the fact that we can’t replace them if anything happens, we are unable to replace them and having a large delegation would make it difficult should there be a need for us to pivot and leave that region as quickly as possible and we are not willing to take that risk,” she said during yesterday’s weekly press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister.

Ms Newbold appealed to Bahamians to take climate change and its effects on the country seriously.

“We are trying our endeavour best to make sure to bring back tangible, useful, and effective outputs from these meetings because we don’t have the luxury. We’re an island state,” she said.

“Climate change is the hurricane, climate change is the heat index, climate change is the health problems that come in relation to that.

“We don’t have the luxury to sit back and do nothing, to not be a part of the discussions, to not demand that people adhere to the agreements and outputs that have been agreed to and to ensure that they take the responsibility where it ought to be laid.”

She noted that the government’s focus for COP28 is to engage in negotiation processes and advance investment programmes.