This evening we asked Prime Minister Briceno the same thing. As we told you last week, he's skipping out on COP-27 in Egypt.
He attended COP-26 last November, and in September he delivered a strongly-worded speech at the UN General Assembly.
He was speaking on behalf of the small island developing states, which often confront the worst impacts of climate change, and he told his counterparts that, quote, "Belize is one hurricane away from catastrophe."
This evening, we asked him if Hurricane Lisa is proof positive of that statement:
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Just proved what we were talking about all along, that many of these developed countries, they don't feel what we're going through. For instance, a hurricane hits Florida, it's less than 1% of GDP. When a hurricane hits a small country like Belize, we have a substantial amount of damage and it costs us a lot to be able to rebuild back. And, that is why we've been calling out to the international community that they need to do their part, we're doing our part to protect the planet, to protect the environment, to try to hold down the increase in temperatures. But yet they are not doing it, they are not doing their part, they have damaged their environment to be able to grow their economies. So, now it is their turn to be able to pay us for the work that we are doing."
