Panton: Cayman needs to cut carbon emissions by two-thirds

The Cayman Islands needs to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by almost two-thirds, Premier Wayne Panton says.

Speaking in an Zoom interview with CIGTV from the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow this week, Panton said Cayman’s carbon dioxide emissions per capita was 12.4 tonnes, “higher than many other big countries that are pumping out way more than their share”.

He said the Cayman Islands needed to reduce its carbon emissions to 4.8 tonnes per capita “as quickly as possible, so at least we have the credibility of saying we’ve done our share and we expect the rest of the world to do their share too”.

The Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change that was adopted by the 196 countries and jurisdictions represented at COP21 in France in 2015, set out a target of 4.8 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per capita by 2030.

Cayman’s National Energy Policy, released in 2017, noted that in 2014, Cayman’s greenhouse gas emission levels were 12.3 tonnes per capita. That policy set a local aim for 70% of total electricity generation to come from renewable sources by 2037.

The main aim of the COP26 summit is to find ways to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. One of the means of doing this is to cut carbon dioxide emissions across the planet.

Panton flew to the UK to attend the conference last weekend and returned on Thursday. He attended a number of sessions there, including a Terra Carta forum and reception hosted by Prince Charles. At the event, the prince awarded inaugural Terra Carta Seals to 45 companies for their commitments to environmental sustainability and decarbonisation.

The premier said it had been inspirational to see “hundreds of CEOs and chairmen of some of the biggest companies in the world there, all committing to reducing their carbon output and going for zero carbon over a short period of time, and really pushing sustainability over every aspect of their business. That gives me hope.”

Panton said the importance of the COP26 summit could not be overstated, and Cayman, despite its small size, has to do its part.

He noted that some of the first places in the world that will be affected by climate change and rising ocean levels are low-lying island jurisdictions like the Cayman Islands.

“We are the ones who are going to feel it first and are the ones that are going to feel it most,” he said.

He also addressed queries why he had left Cayman to attend the conference as COVID-19 numbers surged locally, saying that, ultimately, the pandemic is a temporary crisis, while the impact of climate change will be felt for generations unless immediate actions are taken.

“The current pandemic, the current COVID set of circumstances, has a finite term,” he said, adding, “Climate change is something that is an existential risk to Cayman, to mankind, and that’s why we have to care about it. Because, even though the major consequences of it may be two or three or four decades away, if we don’t do something about it now… we will lose the opportunity to do anything about it.”

Earlier this week, the Cayman Islands government announced it had signed an agreement with the UK’s Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), for a climate change risk assessment specific to its islands to be carried out, in a first step to review and update a decade-old draft of its National Climate Change Policy and Strategy. A final report will be produced by Cefas in September 2022.