by Linda Straker
- Minister Dennis Cornwall will be Acting Prime Minister of Grenada until 19 August 2022
- Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell will be at conference in The Bahamas from August 16-18 2022
- Second time Cornwall is Acting Prime Minister
- First appointment in July when Prime Minister attended ECCB Monetary Council Meeting in St Lucia
Minister Dennis Cornwall will be the Acting Prime Minister of Grenada until 19 August 2022 because Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell is among regional heads of Government who are currently in The Bahamas participating in a 2-day conference where climate change issue is the main topic on the agenda.
“The meeting, scheduled for August 16-18 2022, will provide an opportunity for Caribbean leaders to discuss critical areas for harmonised action, ahead of the 27th UN Climate Change Conference (COP 27) in Egypt in November. Prime Minister Mitchell will return on August 19, 2022,” said a news release from the Government Information Service (GIS).
The release did not say when the Prime Minister left the island or the other members of the entourage who accompanied the Prime Minister to The Bahamas.
This is the second time that Cornwall who is the Minister for Infrastructure and Physical Development, Public Utilities, Civil Aviation, and Transportation is Acting Prime Minister while Dickon Mitchell is out of State. His first appointment was in July when the Prime Minister attended the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) Monetary Council Meeting in St Lucia. That acting appointment was published in the Government Gazette 2 weeks after the appointment.
The Regional Caribbean Heads of Government Meeting is taking place at Baha Mar Resort.
“My administration is introducing this conference as we seek to get results in the climate change fight. The Bahamas — along with the region — has lobbied year after year, meeting after meeting, as we sought for the world to acknowledge our vulnerable position,” Phillip Davis, Prime Minister of The Bahamas.
He explained that the meeting will position the Caribbean region to take control of its future and present a unified position to the world at COP 27, which will take place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt in November. He noted that the Government of The Bahamas intended to establish the meeting as an annual event and will seek to have it instituted as a regular meeting on the United Nations Framework for Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) calendar.
Prime Minister Davis according to a 4 August 2022 release from his office, pointed out that the meeting was also intended to establish a Caribbean response exclusive of the conventional Latin-America/Caribbean pairing, in order to better reflect common geographical and geo-political issues of Caribbean states.
“At the conclusion of the meeting, a Chair’s Summary will be made available detailing the scope of the discussions, as well as the key messages and ideas that emerge,” Prime Minister Davis said.
In July, Kerryne James Minister for Climate Resilience, The Environment and Renewable Energy attended the 13th Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Germany which was hosted by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt, in his capacity as the President-Designate of the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) Meeting scheduled for November 2022.
The Petersberg Climate Dialogue offers an opportunity for countries to prepare for the series of negotiations that are part of the annual Conference of Parties on climate change. About 35 Climate Resilience and Environment Ministers from across the globe engaged in dialogue which offered an opportunity for high-level engagement to advance discussions on the acceleration of global ambition in pursuing a shift towards renewable energy and carbon capture and storage.
Topics included advancing action under adaptation; addressing key aspects of the loss and damage mechanism and accelerating national mitigation action. The convention’s current financial flows fall short of what is needed to achieve agreed climate goals for both adaptation and mitigation actions.
The focus of COP27 has been aptly identified as “implementation” of the Paris Agreement and this has taken on new significance as this year, 2022, is the 30th anniversary of the climate convention.
Again this new government only in power a few weeks and traveling to all these useless conferences at tax payers expense. So he went with an entourage. We are paying for these trips that brings no benefit to us as Grenadians. Paying for these honorable fools to “sight see”. There are so many issues needed immediate attention here, but yet we have these young learned fools going on trips each month. We are in for trouble!