Climate change, Goat Islands ... and a few lizards

Joan Grant Cummings, GUEST COLUMNIST

Over the past few years, I've taken up watching NFL games with my hubby. It's a way to increase our time with each other - we're active empty nesters! Surprisingly, I found that I love the games - not the violence, the strategy for every play. I am even more invested in the rules of engagement (ROEs), with prescribed penalties for violations, leading broadcasters to exclaim, 'C'mon, man!"

As a civil-society activist, we have ROEs, too - within movements and with our governments. They are based on good governance. Open any development text, United Nations document or even Google! Good governance is a real concept that speaks to how the decision-making process is conducted and implemented. This is the main social contract, or ROE, between citizens and their governments. There are about eight key ROEs:

Meaningful participation of citizens in the decision making and implementation process;

Transparency;

Accountability;

Respect for and application of the rule of law;

Consensus-oriented decision making;

Equity and inclusion of minority groups and the inclusion of men, women and organised civil society;

Effectiveness and efficiency;

And the protection of human rights.

Good governance results in sustainable development, minimises corruption and advances the equality of all persons. Our governments must demonstrate responsiveness, and all of us must agree to act with responsibility.

If the ghosts of our ancestors and the iguanas, the mangroves and 'a few lizards' could speak, I wonder what they would say about our ROEs on the Goat Islands? For sure, the lizards are croaking about our continued delusion that we have power over nature. "C'mon, man!"

Between November 11 and 22, of this year, Jamaica will be among 195 states at the 19th International Meeting on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), to be held in the National Stadium of Warsaw, Poland. A national consultation to inform and attempt to develop a 'national position' was made possible, thanks to Judy Wedderburn of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES); Dr Mariama Williams, internationally renowned Jamaican economist and a senior fellow at the South Centre in Geneva, the Ministry for Climate Change and the Met Service.

A few civil-society organisations, regional organisations and other national government entities were able to participate.

States meet on this key issue because they agree that "... stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic (man-made) interference with the climate system ..." is critical to human survival and our planet.

live up to responsibilities

When the gavel sounds the end of the games in Warsaw, it won't be about how many medals we won. It will be about how developing countries, small island developing states (SIDS) like us can manage to cajole, demand, or compel, developed countries to live up to their responsibilities agreed to in this legally binding treaty.

It will be about how good governance is respected and modelled in the international arena, especially by developed nations that presume to have the moral authority to teach good governance.

The developed countries must be wondering what was put in the water in Rio de Janeiro in 1992! How did they agree to the UNFCCC, especially Articles 4.7 and 4.8, which state that:

"The extent to which developing country parties will effectively implement their commitments under the convention will depend on the effective implementation by developed country parties of their commitments under the convention related to financial resources and transfer of technology and will take fully into account that economic and social development and poverty eradication are the first and overriding priorities of the developing country parties."

And in 4.8 that:

"In the implementation ... , the parties shall give full consideration to what actions are necessary under the convention, including actions related to funding, insurance and the transfer of technology, to meet the specific needs and concerns of developing country parties arising from the adverse effects of climate change and/or the impact ... especially on: (a) small island countries; ... ."

Lest any of us has that knee-jerk response that developing countries are asking for a 'handout' again, we need to be clear. This is not official development assistance. This is about commitments and responsibility. We are in the fight for our lives for the last bit of atmosphere - yes, the clean air that we breathe. The developed countries, since the industrial revolution have been 'developing' and have used up more than their fair share of the clean air - of our atmosphere. This has resulted in our global warming predicament and climate calamity. "C'mon, man!"

Every Jamaican should read the Climate Convention or have it read to them. Developing countries such as Brazil, India, China, South Africa, Singapore, among others, are often quoted as now being the big polluters. Yes they are, but they do not have a stockpile of bad air, like developed regions do, mainly the European Union and the United States.

It's like this: The experience of your 100-year-old grandma will always beat yours, no matter how much tweeting and Facebooking you know how to do, you will never catch up with her life experiences.

This leads us into the Goat Islands struggle. This is a case study of poor governance that should form part of secondary and tertiary curricula. It demonstrates a lack of: transparency; accountability; responsibility to the people - no meaningful consultations; violations of people's right to development; questionable decision making, e.g. the unilateral 'un-declaring' of the area as protected, despite the big plaque saying so, the lack of honest responsiveness - the 'quadri-polar' nature of utterances from at least four ministries.

Even a request via the Access to Information Act for the scoping report was denied, only to then release it into the public domain. Disturbingly, it reveals significant errors. How much did we pay for this? Or who paid for it?

The latest research on climate change tipping points done by the University of Hawaii, Manoa, published in NATURE, cites Jamaica as the first country within the Americas that will experience its climate tipping point in 2023! We will run out of time to adapt or mitigate. Our forecast is to sink.

The south coast, home to the Goat Islands (with a few lizards), is cited as part of our island most vulnerable to climate-change effects, i.e. storm surges, saline water intrusion, inundation, among other effects. However, the Goat Islands form a natural defence against climate change because of its animal and plant life.

Why destroy a natural sink for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, as well as a natural defence against storm surges? We're positing building a major hub only to have it sink possibly by 2023? And how can we seriously teach our children drivel that we can pick up and replant a 500-year old tree and mangroves to compensate? "C'mon, man!"

disquieting silence

The silence from our new climate-change czar in our ministry is disquieting. The scoping report does not even acknowledge scientific facts in our own 2012 State of the Jamaican Climate Report that our Climate Change Minister Robert Pickersgill tabled in Parliament. Is reading not a requirement for our MPs and heads of departments? It is shameful and disingenuous of our Government to waste our time and refuse to share full information on any proposal pertaining to the Goat Islands.

The Government's strategy is to keep us asking - where's the ball? Where's the goalpost? Who is the quarterback? "C'mon, man!"

As Jamaicans, we must take responsibility for the stewardship of all our resources. Investors cannot decide our future - we've been there and done that! We must inform and educate ourselves on the issues and demand that our equal involvement in the process be respected. We must be prepared to go for the full hundred.

Who's with me? A few lizards? Then, "c'mon, man!"

Joan Grant Cummings is a volunteer with the Jamaica Civil Society Coalition. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.