Belize Gears Up for COP29, Aims to Secure Greater Climate Funding

Belize is preparing for the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference commonly known as COP29. The international event will be held in November in Azerbaijan and is considered another chance to hold nations accountable for delivering on their environmental targets. At previous undertakings of the event, Belize has been able to lobby for financing for projects geared at bolstering the country’s resiliency to climate change. Minister of Sustainable Development and Climate Change, Orlando Habet, spoke about Belize’s strategy for the event and its plans to demand greater funding as the effects of climate change continue to reveal themselves.

Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development: “COP29 will be in Azerbaijan in Europe. We as a country will sit down and look at a framework that we can develop and look at some of the needs that we want to put forth. Certainly finance is big on our agenda. If I participate will more than likely be representing CARICOM participants and leading on climate finance and so as a region we will also meet as CARICOM to come up with common positions that we will be negotiating and the more countries that we have that come together with the same views and needs and wants I think that it’s something that makes us stronger around the negotiating table. But what we also have been requesting is that they take us into consideration not only now but also in the end, in the final stages because most of the decisions especially the final document a COP comes out on the last day, many times we are left out. So this is something that has to change. We have to be there at the table from the very beginning until the end.”

At COP28, Belize was able to access funding for 112 million dollars in grants for climate adaptation and resiliency.