United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday made a strong appeal for international solidarity to the Caribbean islands impacted by recent hurricanes.
Guterres visited Antigua and Barbuda to kicked off a two-country tour which will see him travelling to Dominica on Sunday.
“I have just witnessed a level of devastation that I have never seen in my life,” Guterres said at a press conference following his visit to Barbuda.
“I have been in areas torn by conflict, in my own country I have seen earthquakes, I have seen storms. I have never seen such a high level of devastation like the one that I have witnessed in Barbuda.”
A powerful Hurricane Irma, churned its way across Barbuda on September 6 leaving at least one person dead and millions of dollars in damages.
The UN Secretary-General said the link between climate change and the catastrophic hurricanes being witnessed in the Caribbean is obvious.
“Many people say that we always have hurricanes, we always have storms and there is nothing linking those storms with climate change. The truth is . . . we have now hurricanes and storms with a much higher frequency and a much higher intensity. And there is a clear link between the level of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, the temperature of the water and the intensity of the rain storms and the hurricanes in this region and other parts of the world,” Guterres said.
“This link is obvious . . . and there is a collective responsibility of the international community to stop these suicidal developments, and for that, it is essential that the Paris Agreement on Climate Change is fully endorsed and respected. But also, to recognize the commitments made in Paris are not enough so we need an enhanced engagement of the international community to be able to dominate climate change and to avoid these dramatic disasters we are seeing.”
