The Bahamas must integrate mitigating factors against the effects of climate change in everything it does moving forward, Prime Minister Perry Christie told a room full of small island developing states (SIDS) representatives yesterday, lamenting that the country is under a real threat of inundation from sea level rise and more devastating hurricanes in the near future.
"We don't need any further evidence in The Bahamas that the sea will claim the land," Christie said at the United Nations Small Island Developing States' (UNSIDS) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) symposium.
Christie made the comment after recalling that he had listened to the head of a Pacific island country speak of sea level rise inundating parts of his own country.
Parts of the SDGs and the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway (a blueprint to further implementation of the sustainable development agenda of SIDS) call for SIDS to pay special attention to the effects of climate change on their countries. Christie said the recently developed National Development Plan (NDP) has set out goals that look at mitigating the effects of climate change on The Bahamas, which work in tandem with the goals set out by the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
But Christie said financial and social burdens could jeopardize SIDS development and implementation of these SDGs and the SAMOA Pathway.
"Many of you sitting here have been through similar (natural disasters) events and have suffered the financial and social burdens associated with the recovery, which adversely impacts the implementation of priority projects geared to meeting the goals of the 2030 agenda," he said.
"We must truly work at understanding the challenges that each of our countries face. We share a common interest."
Christie's main concern was the impact of hurricanes on The Bahamas, which he said are becoming stronger and more frequent. He said The Bahamas does not know how many more back-to-back years it could be affected by devastating hurricanes.
He suggested that The Bahamas could already be seeing the effects of sea level rise, with hurricane storm surges reaching further inland than before. He said the water has always receded, but offered a foreboding query: "The question is one day, will it?"
Christie said this country's unique geographical layout makes governance, funding and recovery following a hurricane or other natural disaster much more difficult than neighboring states.
"I don't know if there is any country in the region that can be used to illustrate the challenges of which I speak, or for that matter, even in the hemisphere," Christie said.
"There is this compelling urgency for these countries to focus on the challenges that exist, with a view to designing strategies that will make more possible, more likely, the implementation. For countries like us, we have to challenge the bureaucracy, because decision making is one thing and execution and implementation is quite another."

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