Tonight, the world leaders summit is winding down in Glasgow Scotland as negotiations for COP26 truly kick-off.
British Prime Minister and host Boris Johnson set the tone when he told the conference and the world that we were quote, "One minute away from midnight on the Doomsday clock." It's a dire warning and one that's prompting negotiators to apply more pressure in what are their best efforts to save the human race from the climate crisis.
Cherisse Halsall comes to us from Scotland with news of CARICOM's participation at COP26.
She tells us why Belize is garnering a lot of attention with the Blue Bond, which is a model finance for nature-based solution to the climate crisis:
It was 7 News's first day at COP26 this morning and the line to get into the conference was no joke.
But, that's because COP26 is decisive meeting on climate change, where Small Island Developing States, the ones most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, are demanding action.
John Briceno, Prime Minister of Belize
"It gets heard by attending these meetings and by being vocal and by pointing out what Belize is doing, showing that Belize is doing its part and even more so that we're prepared to do even more."
CHERISSE
"And that's what we have here, we have a delegation that's ready that's here on the ground and that's going to be making all of the connections we need."
Case in point, this moment when a British journalist quoted Prime Minister Briceno's words to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Reporter
"Prime Minister, I don't know if the Prime Minister of Belize would share your cautious optimism, I spoke to him today and he said developed countries are not doing enough. he said that the west got rich on lavish lifestyles and that now it was telling developing countries they couldn't do that. He said is that is your message then they need much more money and much more action. So let me ask, do you understand the anger of the prime minister of Belize and also you are not going to get a deal that's good enough on coal, are you?"
Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister
"I think you are absolutely right to highlight the feelings of people in Belize that are in vulnerable states around the world that are on the frontline the fight against climate change and it's been very humbling to sit here and to listen over the last weeks, months."
It's the kind of moment that pushed Belize's PM into the rarefied orbit of firebrand Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley. This morning she told the press that large carbon emitting countries still aren't accepting their culpability for climate change.
MIa Amor Mottley, Prime Minister, Barbados
"I think people are getting there, the problem is those who need to make the decisions are kicking the can down the road and they believe that they can because they're not seeing, they see themselves and for them they don't reach that period of peril probably for another 12 fifteen years."
"Part of the difficulty is that the new emitters, is that the tradition emitters have the largest stock, but whether it's the largest stock or the smallest stock, we are literally like the ground elephants fight we get trampled and that's exactly what's happening now."
But rather than just getting trampled, Belize went into this COP resilient, only the second example of how low-income countries can restructure debt through well-thought-out conservation efforts.
Jen, TNC
"What we're seeing in terms of Belize and other countries is a model where we can, as Prime Minister Briceno said take some of that debt burden and transition it into a conservation, so we've been working very hard with many partners for the last 18 months or so and there will be a very big announcement on Friday about this which is to say this is the second of what we are calling the Blue Bond's transactions, the first was five years ago in the Seychelles where the Nature Conservancy and partners very closely with the government of the Seychelles to create a marine protected area that is twice the size of the UK. Huge area, 30% of that country's exclusive economic zone and in exchange they were able to reduce their debt burden, really great outcome and we are looking to do this in many other places and as you can imagine given the highly indebted nature of so many countries right now, especially amazing biodiversity and have committed to agenda, they are looking around and saying we want to do this, but how do we pay for it, so our job in the donor community and the NGO community is to be there to provide the support that we can for them to reach their goals, because it is amazing. All of these proclamations that were made today, the billions of dollars, at the end of the day if the government does not have the budget, if the communities don't have the incentive don't have the budget that they need to conserve, it's all platitudes."
Platitudes that could be made by world leaders like Joe Biden, Justin Trudeau and even India's Narendra Mohdi but they weren't flying at COP26.
John Briceno, Prime Minister of Belize
"We have to fight if we sit on the side, they are going to forget about us they're going to roll over us. The message that I gave, I gave a message loud and clear that we are doing our part, that the barrier reef, that we can do everything that we can, but if the developed countries don't do their part, there is nothing we can do to protect this world heritage site, that mother earth is dying and that if we don't do something collectively then we are wasting our time. I believe that we sent out a very strong message, not a diplomatic message, but a very in your face message to the developed world."
And in one of COP 26's first disappointments, President Nehandra Modi has pledged that his country India, a newer but major emitter, will reach Net 0 by 2070, twenty years after the globally desired date.
