Effa Tambenkongho
7 December 2011
The Minister of Forestry and the Environment of the Gambia, Jato Sillah has said that some Least Developed Countries have disappeared from the world map as they are now below below sea level because climate change has caused sea levels to rise.
He was speaking at the Durban climate change conference on the behalf of the 48 countries which are considered as Least Developed Countries, (LDCs).
Sillah said the LDCs are facing an escalating crisis as large numbers of people are forced to migrate in search of arable farm lands due to the severe degradation of their own lands. He said developed countries often ignore the collective needs of people in LDCs who are desperately trying to make a living. Referring to the suffering caused by developed nations who have polluted the earth through their industrialisation process, Sillah said “our human rights have been violated”.
The Gambian Minister decried the lack of progress achieved in terms of recognising the rights of the LDCs to sustainable development, so “must we wait for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) report to take action?” He challenged the positions of some of the developed countries who have argued that it would be cheaper to delay implementing mitigation strategies until 2020 or 2030. He said that any delays will only cause more grief and destruction for the LDCs.
LDCs aim to rescue the Kyoto Protocol, and so they have appealed to the countries causing the delay to consider their plight. He said they believe the Kyoto Protocol will narrow the wide gap between the LCDs and the developed world.
He urged negotiators at COP17 to press ahead with the establishment of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) so that adaptation strategies will not be held hostage by certain developed countries.
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