The Tribune

WE HAVE been here before.

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis has called on industrialised nations to pay up for the hardships caused by climate change.

With Hurricane Fiona knocking at our doorstep and Bahamians being evacuated from Mayaguana, the call has been given a sense of greater immediacy – but nonetheless, the warning cry over the dangers of climate change has rung out from The Bahamas before.

To recap, in October last year, Mr Davis gained international attention as he called climate change “the greatest existential threat that The Bahamas has ever faced”.

He was echoing the voices of previous Prime Ministers.

Dr Hubert Minnis asked the United Nations General Assembly in 2019: “When one storm can obliterate an island-state or a number of states in one hurricane season: how will we survive, how can we develop, how will we continue to exist?”

Before that, in 2015, Perry Christie warned the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change in Paris of an “existential threat to the survival of a number of small island developing states”.

Even back in 2009, then Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham warned the UN Convention on Climate Change that climate change “is a serious threat to our economic viability, our social development and our territorial integrity”.

Unity across more than one administration is a rare thing – across four is unheard of.

That is what has been said. But what has been done?

As Mr Davis pointed out, promised financial help has not yet materialised. He said: “In 2015, it was supposed to be 100 billion each year, but none of this has been realised to date.”

He urged industrial nations to “pay the bill now”.

To that end, Mr Davis has set up legislation for carbon credit trading – nations or corporations who are polluters can offset their emissions by buying carbon credits from low emitting nations such as our own. We allow them to use our credits, we get paid as a result.

The next step, of course, should be ensuring that money protects our future. It should pay for storm damage, certainly, but more than that, it should pay for prevention where possible, such as flood defences. Then it can also invest in other measures, such as protection of our mangroves that contribute to our environmental credentials, or investing in renewable energy.

The word there is should – we wait to see if that will come to pass.

But action should not be limited to what we are doing. Mr Davis is right to call larger nations to account. We do not have the economic leverage to pressure such nations into action – but we can call them out when promises are not met. We can shame those nations that say they want to help, but then do not.

Mr Davis did well last year to capture the world’s attention – if only for a moment in this most tempestuous time of a global pandemic, a war in Ukraine and global politics that seem to be rolling back freedoms rather than defending them.

He is right to keep on pressing. As his predecessor was right to push on the issue. And his predecessor, and his predecessor.

The Tribune has previously published maps showing the potential effect of global warming on The Bahamas – with vast swathes of islands at risk of flooding that would not just be a case of damage to buildings but would fundamentally reshape the appearance of our islands.

Perhaps all we have in this debate is a loud voice. But you use what you have. Mr Davis, keep on speaking.