Parliamentarians Attend Climate Crisis Forum Ahead of COP28

Janelle Chanona

COP28 will be held at the Expo City in Dubai later this month and, as a prelude to the annual event, the National Assembly, in partnership with the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, held a forum on climate crisis for parliamentarians.  NGO Senator Janelle Chanona, who was present at the event, spoke about the need for such a conversation.

Janelle Chanona, NGO Senator

“So I think what came out today for me was really that this is a crisis and I think that given that we are shifting from calling it climate change to climate crisis really underscores that we are dealing with something that is an existential threat.  It hurts our chances as humanity, and I think that throughout the planet there is no planet B.  You know, we’ve heard repeatedly that nature doesn’t need us, we need nature.  But more importantly, for ourselves as advocates, I think it’s really important to call out that, you know how like time travel, people think that if you go back in the past and you change one thing that it will change the future or the present as we know it.  So like, don’t touch anything, don’t whatever… We really need to bring that to the here and now to say if I change something now, that that would dictate the quality of my future moving forward and that would have positive and meaningful impact because we are really running out of time and we are here and now, we still have some decisions that we can make and that’s really about the action to the words that we know we have to do.”

Reporter

“What are your thoughts to those Belizeans who see the crisis for what it is but might have become distressed or de-motivated by the fact that previous Conferences of the Parties, leaders have resisted to meet those targets or they have failed to meet those money pledges on loss and damage recovery?”

Janelle Chanona

“I think the minister called it out today, you know, that the politics gets into it and the decisions that need to be made don’t get made.  But I also think that while we’re participating in these global forums that it’s really important for us to nationalize this and embrace this because I think, you know, other Caribbean leaders go out there with the force of their entire population.”