The Tribune

By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said he does not believe his efforts to get developed countries to tackle climate change substantially will be derailed following Donald Trump’s victory in the United States presidential election this week, despite Mr Trump’s critical views about climate science.

“He speaks for his country, and I don’t blame all this on him,” he said, adding that the United Nations Climate Change Conference has been ongoing for 29 years, and Mr Trump has only recently ascended in US politics.

“We’re still no further ahead than we were 29 years ago so what happens next will not just depend on what he does or does not do because nothing much has been happening even when he was not there.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell has said Mr Davis believes climate change is this country’s most pressing issue.

Mr Trump has also expressed hardline immigration views, promising mass detention and deportation of undocumented migrants.

Mr Davis said: “If Bahamians are there and they are not there properly, coming back home, they’re coming back home, so how would that impact us? They’re entitled to be back home.”

He said he hoped returning Bahamians acclimate themselves and become productive in such a situation.

Mr Davis also said he had been advised that the country would soon have a US ambassador.

Former United States US Chargé d’Affaires Usha Pitts said last year that she was saddened about the country’s 12-year absence of a US ambassador.

In May 2022, US President Joe Biden announced Calvin Smyre as his nominee for the ambassador role. The last US ambassador to serve in The Bahamas was Nicole Avant, who left the post in 2011.