Seychelles president, President Wavel Ramkalawan has criticised rich countries over their failure to fulfil promises made at COP26, the United Nations climate change conference in November.
Recall that wealthy countries agreed at the summit in Glasgow to double the funding they give to poor nations to cope with climate change, without giving a specific figure.
The president who said he was “totally disappointed” with the non-commitment, said that he does not expect anything better at this year’s event.
“The big promises, the commitments and everything else, not one cent has come through,” the president said during an interview. “My expectations are not that high, but we have to go through the motions I guess,”.
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This year’s COP27 which will be held in Egypt is expected to focus on Africa’s needs as the pledge made years ago to give $100 billion in funding annually wasn’t met.
During the interview, Ramkalawan, 61, called for a complete revamp of the way the need for grants and concessional finance to counter the impact of a warming planet — currently focused on wealth — is assessed.
H explained that while states such as Seychelles aren’t among the poorest, rising sea levels threaten to swamp the beaches they rely on for tourism dollars and, in cases such as the Maldives, flood the amount of land where people can live.
“We are labelled a high-income earning country and therefore the West will tell us now ‘we can’t make any grants’. They prefer to give their money to countries that waste everything, where things just don’t happen,” he was quoted as saying. “We need to establish a vulnerability index” that will allow us to receive assistance”.
Story was adapted from Bloomberg.
