The Antigua and Barbuda Embassy in the United States capital, Washington, D.C.,
is convening a one-day high-level dialogue on Climate Policy and other key issues
in the Western Hemisphere on Wednesday.
The meeting takes place at the General Secretariat of the Organization of American
States (OAS), Washington, D.C. and it will bring together high-ranking diplomats
from several other Caribbean and Latin American States, as well as an official of
the US State Department, to discuss these issues.
Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States and the Organization of
American States, Sir Ronald Sanders as well as Global Americans Board
Chairman, Iván Rebolledo, will both deliver opening remarks.
The Barbadian Ambassador Noel Anderson Lynch will make the first presentation
on the Bridgetown Initiative. In July 2022, the government of Barbados launched
the Bridgetown Initiative, a policy proposal to fundamentally reform and reshape
the world’s financial institutions, to provide funding for climate action.
This will be followed by a presentation from Costa Rica’s Ambassador, Catalina
Crespo-Sancho, on the preparations for the third United Nations Ocean Conference
(UNOC). In June 2025, the governments of France and Costa Rica will co-chair
the third UNOC aimed at promoting sustainable ocean management and improving
marine governance. In June 2024, Costa Rica will host a preparatory stakeholder
meeting.
Following a brief break, the Bahamas Ambassador Wendall K. Jones will speak on
the preparations for the IV Inter-American Meeting of Ministers and High-Level
Authorities on Sustainable Development 2, to be held in The Bahamas on October
3rd and 4th, 2023. The meeting will focus on the threat of climate change and the
need for collective hemispheric climate action.
In his full presentation, Sir Ronald will inform his colleagues on the matter where
Antigua and Barbuda is taking a case before an internationally recognized body to
adjudicate on an issue of climate change and its disruptions to the lives and
economies of small island states. The case is the Small Island States and the
International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS). On September 12, 2023,
ITLOS will hear a groundbreaking case, initially presented by Antigua and
Barbuda and Tuvalu, on the legal responsibility of States for carbon emissions,
marine pollution, rising sea levels, and the resulting damage inflicted on other
States.
Other presentations will come from Global Americans Climate Change in the
Caribbean Program as well as from Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for
Caribbean Affairs and Haiti, Barbara Feinstein. Her remarks will be followed by
an open debate/discussion among participants.
