Belize’s National Statement: “How Many Lives Must Be Sacrificed Before There is Urgent Climate Action?”
Today, government leaders took turns making national statements regarding climate change and their respective country’s positions on the crisis. The speeches were strong, especially those coming from countries like Belize that have been experiencing increasingly severe impacts of climate change. This morning, the head of the Belize delegation at COP27 in Egypt, Minister Orlando Habet, took to the podium and did not mince words in calling out larger countries that have been built on exploiting fossil fuels and who have historically accepted responsibility for the climate crisis facing the world today. The Minister of Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management prefaced his statement on the recent devastation in Belize cause by Hurricane Lisa, saying that there is approximately one hundred million U.S. dollars in physical and social damage with five hundred homes lost and five thousand persons in shelters. He went on to say “losses of this singular event are about ten percent of the national budget, money that could otherwise use for health, education and poverty alleviation.” The impact of Hurricane Lisa is the reality of the climate emergency and the need for immediate action. Minister Habet questions how many lives must be sacrificed before there is urgent climate action.
Orlando Habet
Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management
“Small island developing states such as Belize continue to be severely impacted by climate change across all sectors. SIDS continue to face natural health related social and economic shocks that are beyond domestic control. The growing vulnerability of SIDS is a direct consequence of being in climate sensitive zones and are especially prone to the destructive impact of climate change with damage costing approximately twelve point six billion U.S. dollars per annum. Losses due to natural hazards exceed an average of U.S. forty-six million dollars per year in Belize. Even in the face of these challenges, Belize continues to implement target actions to mitigate and help our people adapt to the impacts of climate change. Belize’s updated NDC shows a five percent increase in overall commitment. UNFCCC synthesis reports on NDCs show that even if all unconditional and conditional nationally determined contributions, the combined pledges of one hundred and ninety-three parties of the Paris Agreement would put the world on track for achieving two point five degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the century. Such a scenario will inevitably lead to overshoot of the one point five degrees centigrade goal, resulting in irreversible impacts on SIDS. This would necessitate making drastic and unprecedented emission cuts across all sectors. This COP is an implementation COP, we need action, where are those actions? In how many COPs have we been arguing for urgent climate action and how many more do we need to have. How many lives do we need to sacrifice to serve the biggest crisis we face in our civilization.”
