Nations hit by natural disasters tell climate talks ministers to act

Battered by last month's ferocious climate-fuelled hurricane, Jamaica joined other small island nations and impoverished countries at this week's United Nations climate talks to implore the rest of the world to stop talking and start acting. Their message: Our lives are on the line. Seth Borenstein, Anton L Delgado and Melina Walling of the Associated Press report

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> Activists participate in a climate protest during the Cop30 UN summit in Belem, Brazil

(JOSHUA A. BICKELI)

A S HIGH-LEVEL ministers from governments around the world took over negotiations at the conference called Cop30, vulnerable nations lined up to say how important it is for countries to cut emissions.

They said the world's current climate plans aren't strong enough to keep warming below the 1.5℃ (2.7ºF) set by the 2015 Paris Agreement.

In addition, they renewed a longstanding call for rich nations to do more financially to help poor countries deal with warming.

"Hurricane Melissa changed the life of every Jamaican in less than 24 hours," said Matthew Samuda, the country's economic growth minister.

The category 5 hurricane that hit three weeks ago caused almost $10 billion in damage and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. He called it evidence of "the new phase of climate change."

"We did not create this crisis, but we refuse to stand as victims," Samuda said. "We call on the global community, especially major emitters, to honor their commitments and safeguard the 1.5 degree threshold for Jamaica. This is survival. It's about our people and their right to a safe and prosperous future."

Armando Rodriguez Batista, Cuba's environment and science minister, noted his country was flooded by Melissa.

"Tomorrow it will be too late to do what we had to do a long time ago," he said.

Other nations reiterated the life-ordeath nature of stepping up the fight to cut emissions, calling it "a moral duty" and saying climate damage is their day-to-day reality.