<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/13/barbados-pm-mia-mottley-donald-trump-climate-meeting-invitation>
"Mia Mottley, the climate-championing prime minister of Barbados, has invited
Donald Trump to a face-to-face meeting where she would seek “common ground” and
persuade him that climate action was in his own interests.
“Let us find a common purpose in saving the planet and saving livelihoods,” she
told the
Guardian at the UN’s Cop29 climate summit in Azerbaijan. “We are
human beings and we have the capacity to meet face-to-face, in spite of our
differences. We want humanity to survive. And the evidence [of the climate
crisis] we are seeing almost weekly now.”
Only by personal meetings among world leaders can the massive changes needed on
climate action be achieved, she believes. “President Trump has been very clear
about the importance of that kind of face-to-face conversation in the things
that he believes that he can solve as well.”
Mottley, the prime minister who took Barbados out of the Commonwealth realm to
be a republic, has been an electrifying presence at recent UN climate summits
since she took to the stage at Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021 with an impassioned
speech demanding world leaders “try harder” to avoid passing a death sentence
on her country. Since then, she has gained a global reputation as a formidable
champion of the developing countries most affected by climate breakdown.
She has also led a movement among developing and some developed countries to
change the global financial system to generate the funds needed to shift the
world to a low-carbon economy.
The re-election of Trump has thrown a deep shadow over Cop29, which kicked off
on Monday in Baku. Scores of world leaders flew in for the summit, but the
heads of government of most of the world’s biggest economies stayed away.
Delegates fear Trump will withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement,
dismantle regulations and climate targets, and push forward with plans to
“drill, baby, drill” for more fossil fuels. Scientists have warned that if he
follows through on his campaign promises the world has little hope of limiting
global heating to 1.5C above preindustrial temperatures.
Argentinian negotiators representing the government of climate science denier
Javier Milei were ordered on Wednesday to withdraw from Cop29 after just three
days, adding to concerns about the stability of the Paris agreement.
But Trump had shown a willingness to deal with crises before, Mottley noted. “I
think that there are possibilities for discussion. The same warp speed that
President Trump addressed the issue of vaccines and the development of a
vaccine is the same warp speed that we want to encourage him and others to look
at for decarbonising technology,” she said.
She also believes she could show Trump that the US would benefit economically
from tackling the climate crisis.
For instance, she pointed to the flaring of methane from oil and gas production
sites. Installing relatively simple equipment to catch and use the methane
instead would be profitable, according to the International Energy Agency,
which should appeal to Trump.
“Why would you want to flare gas and lose money, when you can use gas and earn
money?” she asked."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
