Hurricanes, Sargassum Intensify Belize’s Climate Struggles  

Belize faces some of climate change’s harshest consequences, despite contributing very little to the global crisis. From stronger hurricanes and rising seas to coastal erosion and sargassum, the pressure continues to grow. But U.S. Ambassador Andre Bauer says Belize should not carry an unfair share of the burden. He is calling for an approach that protects the environment while allowing the country to develop.

 

Andre Bauer, U.S. Ambassador to Belize

“All these are concerns that we need to continue to monitor. You know, I’ve seen the sargassum, and it’s I saw it in Miami Beach before I came down here, so the US is experiencing these. I come from a coastal town of Charleston, South Carolina originally, and we experience lots of devastating hurricanes. And so, there has to be a balance. I think most people don’t consider themself far on one end or far on the other, but they’re conversations that you gotta have. But also, you don’t wanna totally shut down all your development when you’ve got other countries that are every month opening multiple coal plants, and then you don’t allow yourself to do anything. That’s not a fair and reasonable balance. And so some of your leaders are at the UN this week, but these are conversations that need to be had with countries that are really polluting. I don’t believe that Belize, with its minimal pollution, needs to shoulder all the responsibility of trying to clean the world up. Some of these other folks that are not doing as good a job, we need to address them. We need them to step up and and monitor themselves and step up to the plate on making sure that we have a good, clean Earth. Now, can we all do more? Absolutely. But we also, there’s a balance of doing it in a reasonable way where we don’t run off any development that might wanna come to one of our countries.”

 

As the growing impacts of climate change continue to threaten Belize’s coastlines, tourism industry, and vulnerable communities, Bauer noted the need for long-term resilience and adaptation measures.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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