Cayman Islands Premier Wayne Panton has joined delegates from five fellow UK Overseas Territories at the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
Others in attendance as part of the OT delegation at the COP26 conference are British Virgin Islands Minister for Natural Resources, Labour and Immigration Vincent Wheatley; Anguilla Parliamentary Secretary Quincia Gumbs-Marie; Bermuda Deputy Premier Walter Roban; Turks and Caicos Tourism Minister Josephine Connolly; and Tristan da Cunha Environment and Conservation Policy Officer Stephanie Martin.
Panton is scheduled to return to Cayman on Wednesday, 3 Nov., to deal with local COVID issues and the government budget, but before leaving he plans to attend a Commonwealth Reception at the World Leaders’ Summit, hosted by Prince Charles and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on Tuesday.
The OT group will host its own event at the conference on Saturday, 6 Nov., which is Nature and Land Use Day. This event, titled ‘Our Vision for Healthy Oceans’, will include discussions on the role of OTs in helping to counter and mitigate global-warming effects and protecting marine environments that are the lifeblood of many of the island jurisdictions.
The delegation also has additional meetings scheduled in London on on 8 Nov.
Panton, in a statement issued prior to leaving Cayman for his whistle-stop trip to the conference, said, “Our presence there will afford the Cayman Islands an opportunity to strengthen our relationships with global partners in our collective fight against climate change and the damage it is doing to planet Earth.
“The impact of climate change is frightening, especially for small islands states like ours. Our voices need to be heard loud and clear and I intend to add mine to those of our regional colleagues who share the same vulnerabilities and concerns.”
The summit kicked off on Monday with an urgent call for action by Prime Minister Johnson, who likened climate change to a “doomsday device”.
“Humanity has long since run down the clock on climate change,” he said. “It is one minute to midnight on that doomsday clock, and we need to act now.”
British naturalist and TV presenter David Attenborough also spoke to world leaders Monday at the summit, telling them, “If working apart, we are a force powerful enough to destabilise our planet, surely working together, we are powerful enough to save it.”
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