Dominica Prime Minister to Attend COP28

On Monday, the Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, announced that he will attend this week the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) to be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

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As part of his agenda, the dignitary will deliver a speech during the High Level Segment, scheduled for December 1 and 2, and will participate in a ceremony to announce the support of the Green Climate Fund to the Caribbean General Coordination Program.

The Dominica News website reported that the annual climate conference will this time deliberate on the Global Stocktake and countries will report on next steps.

Previously, in his capacity as president of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), Skerrit was confident that the pledges made by developed countries to provide the necessary funds to address the climate crisis will materialize during this meeting.

"As I have said on several occasions before, we need this COP to be an action that delivers on the promises of developed nations to provide the much-needed funding to address the worsening climate situation," he said.

He considered that if the countries of the region leave the meeting "without clear results, it will be a very unfortunate period for us in the developing world."

"Everyone knows my doubts about the usefulness of such conferences, we have walked and talked, and after approximately 30 years we have not seen any practical action by the developed world to help address an existential threat to us in the Caribbean and small island states," he acknowledged.

He stated that the lives of Caribbean people are at risk, and ratified his willingness to remain faithful to the promise made to the Dominican people and the Wider Caribbean region to continue to fight for a more equitable distribution of climate finance.

The 28th edition of the United Nations Conference of the Parties will be held from November 30 to December 12.