ANTALYA, Türkiye, Nov 12, CMC -St. Lucia’s Prime Minister Philip J Pierre, Thursday called on the global community to continue the efforts to fight to limit global warning to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Addressing the 2026 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31), Pierre, who is also the chairman of the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping, said that in Paris, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) had to “fight to limit global warning to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“Eleven years later, progress has been too slow. However, the prospect of exceeding the 1.5 degrees threshold is not a reason to recalibrate the goal. It is a reason to act with greater urgency,” said Pierre, who is also the chairman of the CARICOM Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on Climate Change and Climate Finance.
He told the COP31 that climate change does not need a a headline grabbing hurricane to devastate an island, adding that “every dollar we spend repairing climate-related damage, is a dollar diverted from education, healthcare, housing, poverty reduction and other critical national development priorities.
“Climate change, is the farmer losing crops to drought. The household without reliable water. The fisher whose livelihood is threatened by warming seas, coral bleaching and deteriorating marine ecosystems. The small business whose survival and hopes for the future rise and fall with the health of our coastlines,” Pierre said.
He said Caribbean people pay three times over, first, through the devastation caused by climate change, secondly through the development opportunities lost as resources are diverted to recovery; and thirdly, through the debt they must incur to rebuild what climate change has destroyed.
“This is the fundamental injustice confronting countries that have contributed so little to the problem,” Pierre said, adding that international courts have reinforced that states have legal responsibilities to protect the climate system.
“So, both the law and the science are on our side,” he said, informing delegates that St. Lucia is pursuing renewable energy and cleaner transport.
“Our ambition is not only to reduce emissions, but to build a more resilient nation, with more secure energy, stronger communities and greater opportunity for our people,” he said, acknowledging that “national resources alone cannot meet a global crisis.
“We are not asking to escape responsibility. We are demanding that responsibility be shared fairly major emitters and must move beyond the usual promises. They must reduce emissions that the climate crisis demands.
“They must deliver predictable adaptation finance, with more grants, affordable financing and simpler access. Support must reflect our vulnerability, not merely our national income.
“We cannot build resilience on promises. We need finance, technology and partnerships that reach our communities, protecting water supplies, supporting farmers and fishers, and strengthening the infrastructure on which daily life depends,” Pierre said.
He said that the fund for responding to loss and damage must have the resources to deliver help particularly for people who most need it.
“Success in Antalya will not be judged by the declarations we make, but by the action we take, the commitments we honour, and the lives we improve. These are not unreasonable demands. They are the foundations for a more certain future. “
Pierre said that St. Lucia and the wider CARICOM cannot afford another decade of lengthy negotiations and inadequate responses.
“We must turn the commitments contained in successive COP decisions into urgent, decisive action. In Paris, we fought to put 1.5 degrees at the heart of the global response. In Antalya, we must put delivery at its heart.
“Our young people deserve to inherit a healthy, stable planet on which they can build their futures with confidence and hope,” Pierre added.
CMC/gh/ir/2026