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<span style="font-weight: bold">News Source: OTGNR - </span>
<span style="font-weight: bold"> Confirmed : Caribbean diplomats wo... ( Gleaner )...</span>
CANCUN, Mexico, CMC - Caribbean diplomats here say the region faces "the end of history" if rich countries do not raise their ambition to hold temperatures well below two degrees Celsius. The envoys from the 43 Caribbean, African and Pacific nations, grouped as the United Nations' Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), said, at the UN climate change talks here, they face "the end of history" unless action is taken to stop sea levels rise. Vice-chair of AOSIS and Grenada's UN Ambassador Dessima Williams said anything not below 1.5C is a red line. "It costs US$4,500 a metre just to protect airports, so we would need hundreds of billions of dollars," she said. A new UN report says that every country in the Caribbean faces "huge economic losses" caused by rising sea levels over the coming decades. It says the region will lose hospitals, airports, power plants, multi-million dollar tourism resorts, roads, bridges and farmland. According to the report by researchers at the Oxford University Centre for the Environment, the damages in the English-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries could amount to as much as US$6 billion annually. With infrastructure costs, damage could run into tens of billions in many countries, the report says. The study, which does not consider the costs of coral loss, or the possibility of increased hurricane or storm activity with climate change, says a rise of one metre would result in the sea encroaching by around 100 metres on average in all coastal states in the region. This loss would force more than 100,000 people to move, erode beaches, contaminate fresh water supplies and decimate or degrade the tourism industry on which most countries have come to depend. The Bahamas, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Belize are expected to suffer the greatest economic losses and damages in absolute terms. However, proportionately, the loss to smaller states like Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts and Nevis are predicted to be greater, according to the report. AOSIS has strongly rejected suggestions by rich countries that they could use adaptation money to build sea defences. AOSIS will next week announce details of a deal to promote low-carbon economic growth for 17 small island states, backed by a group of developed nations as part of "fast-start" aid for the poor that was agreed at last year's Copenhagen talks.
<span style="font-weight: bold"> Confirmed : Caribbean diplomats wo... ( Gleaner )...</span>
CANCUN, Mexico, CMC - Caribbean diplomats here say the region faces "the end of history" if rich countries do not raise their ambition to hold temperatures well below two degrees Celsius. The envoys from the 43 Caribbean, African and Pacific nations, grouped as the United Nations' Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), said, at the UN climate change talks here, they face "the end of history" unless action is taken to stop sea levels rise. Vice-chair of AOSIS and Grenada's UN Ambassador Dessima Williams said anything not below 1.5C is a red line. "It costs US$4,500 a metre just to protect airports, so we would need hundreds of billions of dollars," she said. A new UN report says that every country in the Caribbean faces "huge economic losses" caused by rising sea levels over the coming decades. It says the region will lose hospitals, airports, power plants, multi-million dollar tourism resorts, roads, bridges and farmland. According to the report by researchers at the Oxford University Centre for the Environment, the damages in the English-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries could amount to as much as US$6 billion annually. With infrastructure costs, damage could run into tens of billions in many countries, the report says. The study, which does not consider the costs of coral loss, or the possibility of increased hurricane or storm activity with climate change, says a rise of one metre would result in the sea encroaching by around 100 metres on average in all coastal states in the region. This loss would force more than 100,000 people to move, erode beaches, contaminate fresh water supplies and decimate or degrade the tourism industry on which most countries have come to depend. The Bahamas, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Belize are expected to suffer the greatest economic losses and damages in absolute terms. However, proportionately, the loss to smaller states like Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts and Nevis are predicted to be greater, according to the report. AOSIS has strongly rejected suggestions by rich countries that they could use adaptation money to build sea defences. AOSIS will next week announce details of a deal to promote low-carbon economic growth for 17 small island states, backed by a group of developed nations as part of "fast-start" aid for the poor that was agreed at last year's Copenhagen talks.