The Cliffhanger of Climate Change: Where Are the Citizens’ Voices?

June 10th, 2015

The French do love the word “citizen” (“citoyen” in French) and I like it, too. It signifies strength and purpose; someone who has a positive role to play in their nation. So on Monday morning,  I was pleased to attend a “citizens’ debate” organized by the French Embassy in Jamaica, to discuss the broad issue of climate change. It was broken down into digestible pieces, with lots of discussion in between.

Ambassador of France to Jamaica, Jean-Michel Despax. (Photo: French Embassy website)

The audience was an interesting mix of concerned, responsible Jamaican citizens from varying walks of life and age groups, making for a discussion that at times grew passionate but was always respectful and thoughtful. The French Ambassador Jean-Michel Despax reminded us that a crucial Conference of Parties (COP) meeting is looming on the horizon. COP-21 will take place in Paris from November 30 to December 11, 2015. I say “crucial” because indeed it is – each COP meeting seems more pressing than the one before. Each one is “crunch time.”

The amiable Professor Michael Taylor, who heads the Department of Physics at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona campus, and heads the Climate Studies Group there. Professor Taylor has a marvelous way of breaking down climate change, explaining a highly complex issue and making it accessible to a general audience. (Photo: UWI)

Climate change negotiations seem like a permanent cliffhanger, an extended state of torturous, nervous anticipation. Which country or group of countries will agree to what, and with whom? The Caribbean is in a group called the Association of Small Island States (AOSIS), which just today (June 8) proposed that ”A 1.5 degree limit must be a part of the Paris agreement – for the sake of present and future generations.” Ah yes – there is a numbers game going on. In Paris, we are told, the overarching goal will be to limit global temperatures to two degrees. But, in the words of Professor Michael Taylor of the Climate Change Unit at the University of the West Indies, “Two may equal too much.” If the bargaining nations in Paris think a two-degree increase in temperatures is bearable… What if they miss it, and it goes over? In that case, Caribbean temperatures would expect to be four degrees higher by the end of the 21st century – which, by the way, would be unlivable. Since the industrialized age began, the Caribbean has already seen a one per cent increase. Our citizens are already becoming acutely aware of climate change.

Yes, they are already feeling it, living it, trying to adapt to it. Representatives from the farming community pointed out that they are struggling to cope with the effects of rising temperatures right here and now. It is ongoing. It will continue to happen. Who knows what this year’s hurricane season will bring? Hoteliers from Negril noted the impact on the tourism industry. Is anyone listening? I sensed, still, a “disconnect” between civil society – the citizens, who know and feel what is happening on the ground – and the government bureaucrats who listen patiently, and then go back to their desks to carry on with their policy frameworks. Yes, we had a consultation; that box is checked. Back to business as usual.

Incidentally, the Climate Change Division at the Ministry of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change (MWLECC) is “very, very small,” its director Dr. Albert Daley told us. How small is small? Well – how does three people sound? Yes, three. While we are being told that climate change is “the Everest of all problems” and “the biggest threat facing mankind today,” and so on, the Jamaican Government decides to employ three hard-pressed public servants to address it (and by the way, hasn’t the Ministry of Finance just taken on a lot of new consultants?) “But, we should have an entire Ministry devoted to Climate Change only!” commented one citizen. Dr. Daley touched on another dilemma when he told us all Government agencies “must sing from the same hymn sheet” on climate change – which is being mainstreamed into all ministries and agencies.  How long will the mainstreaming take? Bearing in mind the snail’s pace of Jamaican bureaucracy, I would guess at least ten years. Do we have ten years?

Environmental reporter Kimone Thompson (right) conducts a “vox pop” with the citizens. (My photo)

Meanwhile, as another citizen pointed out, while the MWLECC is stressing the urgency of climate change and already dealing with drought, bush fires, floods and water shortages and other severe and very costly occurrences, other ministries (and the MWLECC itself) are charging ahead with actions that are in direct contradiction to adapting and mitigating the impacts of climate change. A planned transshipment port in a protected area, which will include the destruction of mangrove forests, seagrass beds and coral reefs (Ministry of Transport and Housing); deforestation in the Cockpit Country through the encroachment of bauxite mining (Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining); and sudden changes made to development regulations in Negril that will allow for the construction of larger buildings with a higher population density (already under way), leading to greater pressure on its already stressed environment (a combined effort of the Ministry of Tourism, MWLECC and others). The impacts of climate change are hitting us from all directions. Yet, as an audience member observed, we go to the United Nations and make pretty speeches about climate change, but go home and press on with these mega-projects.

An extended drought in several Caribbean islands is already wreaking havoc this year, particularly in the agricultural sector. Here, cattle seek refuge from the searing heat among shrubbery in Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. (Photo: Kenton X. Chance/IPS)

Another note of concern: Dr. Daley stressed that the Government aims to have 20 to 30 per cent renewables by 2030; Jamaica will be playing its part as far as mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions is concerned. This seems an extremely modest target to me. How about twice that percentage? Jamaica’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is tiny on the global scale; but Citizen Mike Schwartz of the Windsor Research Centre in Cockpit Country informed us that Jamaica is actually emitting ten times more per capita than it is absorbing. A significant fact.

Why d0 our leaders seem to be backing away from climate change? Many are walking away. There are still those who flatly deny it. I sense a reluctance among many to stop, turn round and face it. I read somewhere recently that this is a common human psychological response. We are unwilling to face existential problems. We would just prefer to think this giant threat isn’t there at all, or that it will resolve itself; which it will not.

Back to those numbers again. It’s “1.5 [degrees] to stay alive,” declares AOSIS, our group of island states. Yes, it is a matter of life and death. And Jamaica only has three government officials working on this very issue of survival. The survival of our island, of the Caribbean, of the planet. Citizen Gordon from Jeffrey Town in Clarendon – a highly successful sustainable farmers’ collective – asked a telling question: “What drives our development?” Are we just looking at the mighty dollar and profit for our investors, or are we looking for a productive life in harmony with nature? A world we can actually survive in?

Many of the citizens came out of the meeting with heads spinning. However, some delicate and delicious “nibbles,” courtesy of the French Embassy, did help to calm our nerves. Just a little.

P.S. Will Jamaica have a People’s Climate March this year? Stay tuned…

Cyclone Pam in March destroyed almost every building on the Pacific island of Vanuatu. Chair of AOSIS Ahmed Sareer noted: “Up to 70% of disasters may now be climate-related…Human induced climate change has resulted in an increase in intensity and frequency of disasters.” (Photo: AOSIS website)

Tags: agriculture, Association of Small Island States, bauxite mining, Caribbean, civil society, Climate Change, Cockpit Country, Conference of Parties, COP-21, drought, Energy and Mining, French Embassy, Jamaica, Ministry of Science, Ministry of Water Land Environment Climate Change, Negril, Paris, Professor Michael Taylor, protected areas, renewable energy, Small Island Developing States, Technology, tourism, United Nations, University of the West Indies, water resource management