Tonight, the world is only 3 days away from the twentieth sixth Conference of the Parties or COP26. It's the Climate conference where world leaders are expected to come together to deliver on the commitments that they made in COP 21's Paris Agreement.
It's also being hailed as the last chance to solidify commitment to climate action and solve what has become humanity's crisis. And the government of Belize is going there in a big way with a delegation of almost 30. A press release from the government of Belize today says, quote: "It serves as an opportunity to take advantage of the billions of dollars in development assistance that will be available for countries like Belize who can now choose to become leaders in addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation." End quote
And leading a delegation to Scotland's capital city will be Belize's Prime Minister John Briceno. He departs the country tomorrow to attend the pre-cursory World Leaders Summit from October 31 to November 3. The PM is expected to hold discussions with Key agencies and Bilateral meetings with several countries including Norway, Canada, and the Dominican Republic.
His delegation will include the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eamon Courtenay, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Christopher Coye, Attorney General Magali Marin Young; and Cabinet secretary Ambassador Stuart Leslie.
Also heading to Scotland is the delegation that will carry out political negotiations at the COP itself from November 3 to November 13th. That group will be led by the Minister of Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management Hon. Orlando Habet. Also present will be Minister of Blue Economy and Civil Aviation, Andre Perez and his CEO Kennedy Carrillo as well as Director of Blue Economy Beverly Wade; Dr. Osmond Martinez, CEO in the Ministry of Economic Development; and technical representatives from the National Climate Change Office.
Members of Belize's media pool including Channel 7's Cherisse Halsall will also be present at the conference in Glasgow and will be providing daily updates on the negotiations to our viewers here at home.
Belize's delegation is being funded through a partnership with the United Nations Development Program, the REDD+ Project, the Biodiversity Finance Initiative, the Government of the Republic of China (Taiwan), the Protected Areas Conservation Trust, and the EnGenDer Project.
