By NAN Contributor
News Americas, PARIS, France, Weds. Dec. 2, 2015: Latin America and the Caribbean leaders were among 195 global leaders present at the Climate Change COP21 which opened at Le Bourget in Paris yesterday, December 1st on the heels of the November terror attacks.
Attending from the Caribbean were:
1: Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston A. Browne.
2: Prime Minister of the Bahamas Perry G. Christie
3: Prime Minister of Barbados Freundel Stuart
4: President of the Dominican Republic Danilo Medina Sánchez
5: Prime Minister of Grenada Keith C. Mitchell
6: Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis Timothy S. Harris
7: Prime Minister of Saint Lucia Kenny D. Anthony
8: First Vice-President of the Council of State and Ministers of Cuba Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez
From Latin America, the leaders were:
1: President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro Moros
2: President of Peru Ollanta M. Humala Tasso
3: President of Paraguay Horacio Manuel Cartes
4: President of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto
5: President of Honduras Juan O. Hernández
6: Vice-President of Costa Rica Ana-Helena Chacon-Echeverria
7: President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos
8: President of Brazil Dilma Vana Rousseff
9: President of Bolivia Evo Morales Ayma
10: Vice-President of Argentina Amado Boudou
11: President of Chile Michelle Bachelet
Prime Minister Brown of Antigua & Barbuda urged the governments of the industrialized nations to join the smaller nations globally in the Paris Club to help them pay off creditors and to ease them from debts while Prime Minister Perry of the Bahamas urged leaders gathered to agree to a long term goal of keeping the average global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees.
Meanwhile, eleven donor nations – Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States of America – pledged close to $250 USD million in new money for adaptation support to the most vulnerable countries on the planet.
Demand from developing countries for financing from the LDCF remains strong. Droughts, violent storms, sea-level rise and other climate changes are already impacting the poorest and most vulnerable countries and communities.
The COP21 summit will see negotiators from 195 country try to finalize a new climate treaty over the next two weeks. REDD and Indigenous Leaders said that this United Nations climate agreement is a major part of the ‘false solutions’ to climate change.
