2023-12-06 03:36:33
In an exclusive interview with Sky News Arabia, the President of Seychelles, an island country in Africa located in the Indian Ocean consisting of several islands, reviewed the situation in his country regarding climate change.
He said: “We are talking about beaches, mountains, sun, wind and sand, because we are islands… We suffer from climate change, and unfortunately what we are going through now has nothing to do with us, as emissions are zero percent,” pointing to a number of phenomena related to climate change, such as an increase in surface levels. the sea.
He added: “The point we are talking about in the Conference of the Parties is that we are part of the world. The world must look at us with the vision of the sustainable development goals, because anything that happens around us affects us. For example, in 2014, when there was an earthquake in Indonesia, it was Thousands of miles away from us, and yet we lost many lives because of the tsunami that came to us.”
The President of Seychelles stressed the need to find financing; To be able to build and adapt to climate change, also in the same way, and in the same way in the Loss and Damage Fund, adding: “States with small islands need to find financing as well, because we need an injection of money to protect our islands.”
He continued: “There is a simple example when there is a war such as the war in Ukraine and the war of the Israeli and Palestinian sides. What can we do on the islands? This also has a requirement, given that the main thing in movement and means of transportation will be through the sea, and the price of fuel will rise and its cost will rise.” “We will suffer because of this increase.”
He spoke of his country’s suffering as a group of islands, citing what happened during the Corona pandemic, saying: “When there was the Corona pandemic, we suffered because we needed to close the airport, and we lost 80 percent of the tourism profit.”
He called on financing institutions to look at matters from a different angle, such as looking at the upcoming nationally determined contributions to protect against climate change and its crises (..).
He continued: “We talked about the need for there to be justice with regard to financing, and this is one of the most important issues presented at the conference,” expressing his happiness with what was achieved at the conference during the past days.
But at the same time, he wondered about the sustainability of this (..) and the size of countries’ contributions to the Loss and Damage Fund, and the distribution of these amounts, adding: “What will make us happier if we get indicators about how we can access this fund, and this will be related to developing countries.” Can we easily access this box?
He concluded his speech by saying: We are happy to establish the Loss and Damage Fund, but we need steps that will lead us forward… in terms of how can we access these funds?
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