Premier frustrated over BVI being shut out of climate financing
Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley has expressed frustration over the BVI’s struggle to attract climate finance as it continues to face the escalating threat of climate change.
Dr Wheatley described climate change as the single greatest threat to the territory’s survival and development and argued that the type of effort and mobilisation needed to combat the crisis should not be minimised or summarily dismissed.
The territory’s leader argued that funds have been flowing into countries like St Martin and Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda from the United Kingdom and other countries, even as the BVI remains shut out from such funding.
“Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria; we were completely devastated but the funds are not available to us from the United Kingdom,” the Premier stated.
Dr Wheatley argued that the BVI is not eligible for official development assistance funding based on the rules of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
“The UK gives official direct assistance to countries throughout the world, including right here in the Caribbean. They gave tens of millions of dollars. You’d see that they would have given Antigua and Barbuda millions of dollars. They would have given Dominica millions of dollars,” he argued. “None of that money is available to us.”
“We are completely shut out of the UN’s framework, as it pertains to climate finance. We have no access to the Green Climate Fund. No access to the adaptation fund. No access to the new loss and damaged fund,” Dr Wheatley argued.
He reiterated that the BVI has to borrow at least $100 million, partly to address climate change damage and said these effects are very expensive.
BVI making gains
In the meantime, Dr Wheatley insisted that the BVI is making strides through its advocacy, particularly concerning the assistance required to meet the climate change threat.
“The frustration that you hear from myself and from my other colleagues in the OTs is that we’re really shut out completely. But, through our own efforts, this is changing,” Dr Wheatley shared.
Premier Wheatley reported that the territory was represented in a meeting with Rt Hon Graham Stuart, UK Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero.
As a result of the collective representation of the Overseas Territories (OTs) at those key meetings at COP28, the Premier said there is now an agreement from the UK that the OTs will be engaged at the start of the cycle for the UK to prepare its negotiating strategy for COP29 and COPs going forward.
“This provides the critical window that we needed to ensure that our concerns and issues are considered in the process and have a chance to make it into the global negotiations,” the Premier said.
He said there is now a real possibility of having the UK establish a fund for the effects of climate change and said this would be a great victory for the Virgin Islands. “We would not have even been able to have that considered had we not been at the table,” he added.
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Hope the UK do not give that BVI aka Beggar virgin islands a dime. Get back the $250,000 from the useless party and make your own damn climate change fund.
Irma and Maria were not caused by global Warming. Hurricanes have existed since the earth has existed and they have been probably a lot more powerful in the past. The earth has been a lot colder than it is now and has been a lot hotter than it is now. We are so used to controlling everything as humans that we can’t stand it when nature wins (as it always will). If humans die out, the world will carry on regardless and heal itself.
Bottom line, spent a lot of money and time and got nothing for it.
Why should England pay for us to deal with environmental decline when we have lower standards than they do?
He is not our premier but he is the premier of the 487 so blame them and the corner.
He spent how much thousands on that trip thinking he was going to get how much millions in return? Not even a shilling…a complete joker. Please stop lying to this man saying his appointment is divine. We need damage control and we need it fast. He is not qualified to be minister over finance or over anything for that matter, nor to be leader of any country or any district for that matter. Please stop lying to this man. It is ok to be wrong and to ask God for forgiveness. The country is suffering in every way.
You all will squander the money and not use it for its intended purpose. So why waste any time or effort and money?
Agree. What about the Tourist Environmental Tax? Where does it go? Use that to s tart.
This is just an escalation of the cookie jar mentality. All the damage from the hurricanes could have been repaired by now if we had taken the guarantee of cheap loans and kept on the RDA expat manager.
Your words will come back to bite you in your a** stating the BVI IS NOT BROKE.So play with world stage lilman.
Your words will come back to bite you in your a** stating the BVI IS NOT BROKE.So play with world stage lilman.
the Premier suspected this denial of climate change funding then why did he waste our money and his time to fly to the conference in Dubai????
You and the drew and the rest of your pal refused the Hurricane guarantee loan . So you thino they will bother with you ? Another wasted yeip
Off taxpayers money
They probably had plans and put together solutions to deal with the climate issue rather than just show up and go “Umm..” like you normally do, Mr Premier when it comes to answering questions or giving information.
Plus, yall have a history of looking money for things that you don’t fix. That’s well known jn this territory, hence why you got shut out and wasted money and time to do so.
So he came back empty handed again….?
if aya would stop thieving then people would give us money
The VI Government will not agree to oversight so we can’t get loans or grants.
That’s the reason nothing gets fixed.
We still have sewerage outfall (25 years) on both sides of Tortola.
We still have thick smoke filled with plastics and heavy metals causing cancer clusters out west after 12/14? Years
Our electricity is so extremely expensive and diesel generated: THIS day and age???.
Our communications went from some of the best in the world to what we have now…
We don’t support the agricultural sector in any way.
Water? The desert city of Dubai supplies 3.3 million residents plus tourists with RO water every day.
This man just yanking our chains…so is his deputy. We yank our own chains.
Up to now he hasn’t said why! Does he even know why? This is not new.
@resident hits the nail on the head. UK ignores us because we are fiscally irresponsible. We just expect people to give us money, which, if we get it we squander.
Well why should we get monies when we pollute the skies with our burning landfill?
I must say that whether or not you like the Premier you could use a more respectable picture to attach to each story dealing with the Premier rather the one BVI keeps intentionally using to paint him in a non-professional manner.
He needs the money to fund that climate-friendly airport extension so those climate-friendly jumbo jets can land here.
This is the dude that want Independence!
Best he had just stay home and do something constructive like idk finish dealing with the national budget!
Might as well we had start our own climate change fund starting with the thousands wasted on trips by ministers that don’t have no tangible benefit to the BVI or its people.
What’s funny is that just a few weeks ago it had an article in the news saying how nobody knows what’s actually done for the environment with the environmental levy we charging visitors since 2017. In the last 8 years alone we done bad spend so much tens of millions now you frustrated that the UK not finding money for the gang to squander?
“gotta drop ah dime on um.”
That’s after massive spending on travel and leisure. We in trouble buddy
We talk about climate change and are not addressing:-
1. (to our advantage) How we can use our abundance of natural resources to help to mitigate climate change;
2.How our greed for additional land has a direct impact on sea level rise;
3. How the massive importation of cars is affecting air quality.
Premier, we do not necessarily need government’s money to tackle these – pass and enforce legislation!
A native Virgin Islander to the Nth generation
Just quit and leave