 Mr Deputy Speaker, I beg to present for second reading a bill shortly entitled Climate Change. Mr Speaker, before I delve into the minute details of the proposed legislation, the first of its kind in our country, permit me to provide a broad overview of the global phenomenon that we know as climate change. Climate change, Mr Speaker, refers to the long-term shifts in temperature and weather patterns, and it is part of what scientists and environmentalists refer to as the triple planetary crisis. A term used, Mr Speaker, to describe the intersecting of three global phenomena, environmental in nature of course, of pollution, biodiversity loss and the climate crisis itself. Human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, gas, etc. which produce heat trapping gases. And Mr Speaker, the offenders as we call them in climate change circles, particularly when we meet a smaller than developing states, are the industrialized and developed countries. And in their manufacturing activities, they consume large quantities of fossil fuel, thereby emitting, Mr Speaker, huge amounts of greenhouse gases that contribute immensely to the warming of the earth and its atmosphere. Mr Speaker, the Caribbean is one of the regions of the world most vulnerable to climate change. We live on the frontline of climate change. And if the Caribbean is on the frontline of climate change, naturally Mr Speaker, St Lucia and St Lucians, we too live on the frontline of climate change. Mr Speaker, in 2022, a year and maybe three quarters, a year and maybe four months ago, we witnessed firsthand in St Lucia where a weather system remained stationary on the northern half of St Lucia. And in the space of two to three hours, deposited water or rain on Corinth and Jerusalem, Mr Speaker, in amounts that had never been seen before by this generation. And in the space of two to three hours, Mr Speaker, appliances were floating from inside homes and finding themselves on the streets of Corinth like dry leaves and pieces of paper. Cars, Mr Speaker, weighing hundreds of pounds, Mr Speaker, were no match for the waters that descended on Corinth, rendering the police, Mr Speaker, a disaster zone. And I recall in the immediate aftermath of that particular weather event, I traveled to Mushamel, Sheikh, Egypt, where I joined environmental ministers responsible for the environment and climate change at COP 27. And then, Mr Speaker, we spoke in one voice as representatives of small island developing states to the injustices that we had to suffer and confront as countries affected by climate change. Climate change, Mr Speaker, can cause your GDP to be wiped out in the space of two hours. Climate change, Mr Speaker, or the impacts of climate change can result in the loss of livelihoods. People can also die and climate change, Mr Speaker, can affect every facet of a society, every sector of your economy. Mr Speaker, disasters triggered by climate change in Latin America and the Caribbean in the last, from 1990 to the year 2022, disasters were quantified in the region of roughly two billion US dollars. So, Mr Speaker, climate change ought to be taken seriously. But how does climate change really manifest itself on St. Lucia and other small island developing states of the Caribbean? Mr Speaker, we see a rise in sea levels. Large coastal populations in the Caribbean are under threat. And if the ocean continues to rise at the rate that it has been rising, we are being told by scientists that in a few decades from now, Mr Speaker, a lot of the coastal villages that we know will cease to exist and people will have to move to higher ground thereby losing property, losing their livelihoods and things of that sort. Mr Speaker, as we speak, almost every island of the Caribbean has to find monies to spend in building what we call sea defenses. In a place like Belize, Bahamas, and even here in St. Lucia, Mr Speaker, when you look at the coastline in view of, in particular, at the end of the Hira Nura International Airport runway. The government of St. Lucia has had, Mr Speaker, to find boulders and continually we've had to place boulders on the shoreline to protect the coast from the wave action that has been eating away at the land for some time now. Mr Speaker, climate change manifests itself in the form of stronger hurricanes because when the ocean temperature rises, it creates an environment that is very conducive for hurricanes to form with greater frequency and with more strength, Mr Speaker. Climate change also manifests itself in longer dry seasons and that has implications for crop production and water security. Mr Speaker, we have witnessed very erratic weather patterns in recent times all as a result of climate change. And I say all of this to say, Mr Speaker, that given the fact that climate change results from the consumption of fossil fuels by more developed countries, Mr Speaker, it is grossly unfair for small island developing states like St. Lucia to have to face the brunt of something we did not create, thereby giving rise to the whole concept of climate injustice as we've come to know it at the UNFCCC when we meet for meetings of different kinds. And so, Mr Speaker, we have had to go to international meetings asking the developed countries to pay up and to make resources available to the smaller developing countries to treat with the issues of climate change. And for many years now, Mr Speaker, it never appeared that the cries of small island developing states had been falling on deaf ears. And so I was extremely elated when in Shamil Sheikh, Egypt, Mr Speaker, in 2022, at the COP, a decision was taken to establish a loss and damage fund that would give access to resources to smaller countries to deal with the adaptation and mitigation issues. Mr Speaker, at the most recent COP held in Dubai, progress was made in that respect. And today, as we speak, plans have been finalized to capitalise and operationalise the loss and damage fund. Mr Speaker, every year the Caribbean is impacted by hurricanes and storms. And once they have come through the island chain, they leave a trail of destruction in their wake. And governments have to find monies that are not readily available to build back and to build more resilient infrastructure to ensure that next year's hurricane season does not unleash in the way that the previous would have. And so, Mr Speaker, we have to ensure that there is climate justice. And climate justice speaks to putting people at the heart of decision making as it relates to climate action. The unequal historical responsibility that countries and communities bear in relation to climate change and the climate crisis is something that we must take very, very seriously. And so, Mr Speaker, for something that impacts your country so dramatically and in such a profound way, the international community is saying that given the impact of climate change at the domestic level, the regional level or globally, the time has come, Mr Speaker, for there to be legislation across countries to guide and inform how countries treat with issues of adaptation and mitigation. Adaptation speaks to the programs that the government will embark on to have its citizens coexist with the impacts of climate change. Whereas mitigation, on the other hand, Mr Speaker, speaks to the measures that one can resort to to ensure that there isn't greenhouse gas emissions or things that contribute to the whole climate change phenomenon itself being given currency. And so today, Mr Speaker, international lending agencies and international organizations are saying to small island developing states that we are prepared to give you money, but we must see on your books legislation that speaks to how you are going to address climate change and how you are going to deal with the issues of adaptation and mitigation. And it is against that backdrop more than anything else, Mr Speaker, our government saw the need to enact legislation that deals with climate change and that is why today I'm presenting to this Honourable House that Climate Change Bill 2023 on behalf of the Cabinet of Ministers, I happen to be a part of. The Climate Change Bill establishes the rules for a coordinated national response to climate change while taking into account St. Lucia's status as a small island developing nation. It establishes the National Climate Change Committee or the NCCC, a technical advisory body comprising public, private and civil society entities and the functions of the Department of Sustainable Development as the national climate change focal point. Mr Speaker, I mentioned adaptation and mitigation. Those responsibilities are shared. For instance, the Department of Forestry has a direct stake in the whole mitigation first because Mr Speaker, one of the responses to climate change to help with mitigation is for us to plant more trees that would cause the trees themselves to absorb excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere giving rise to a much cooler planet. The bill facilitates the development and implementation of policies, legislation, guidelines, standards, processes, programs and projects for mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage. It establishes the importance of and facilitates into earlier access to finance, technology transfer, capacity building, awareness raising, reporting, research and data management in the realm of building climate resilience. For its incorporation of new standards for risk informed decision making, establishment of a strong governance architecture for St. Lucia's climate change response and legal structure for aiding and financing economy-wide resilience and mitigation efforts. The bill has been developed under the necessity to be an original example of national climate change legislation. Mr Speaker, I spoke to that earlier when I said that this piece of legislation is the first of its kind in the Caribbean. The purpose of the bill is to offer a thorough framework for St. Lucia's response to climate change. By so doing, the bill conveys the extent of St. Lucia's commitment to combat climate change and to enshrine in law the emission reduction targets outlined in the Paris Agreement through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, otherwise known as the UNFCCC. More specifically, under this bill, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has the force of law in St. Lucia, as does the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. The bill realizes the challenges that climate change poses to the population, natural resources and economy, and the urgency of climate action that is needed and provides a high level framework for St. Lucia's response to climate change. In response to this emergency, the bill creates the framework necessary to help St. Lucia better meet its obligation under the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC as a whole. These legal standards will aid in the creation and execution of a comprehensive and long-term response to climate change. The bill will provide governance arrangements, reporting requirements and new overall standards with the intention of enhancing St. Lucia's capacity and ability to transition and adapt in order to protect St. Lucia's future and its people in the face of global climate change. And the bill, Mr. Speaker, also gives important policies that are already in place, a solid legal foundation. So all of what we've been doing in relation to managing climate change, Mr. Speaker, the policies, although they are among the best in the world and they sit well with international standards, they have no legal basis. And so this piece of legislation will ensure, Mr. Speaker, that not only will we be doing things in a discretionary way, but we will have the legal authority at the Department of Sustainable Development and Allied Agencies to ensure that as we roll out our plans in relation to climate action, we will have a legal footing on which to do so. These policies include the National Adaptation Plan and the Climate Change Adaptation Policy and the Nationally Determined Contribution, NDC, which will be continuously reviewed and modified as part of St. Lucia's Climate Change Policy Suite. The climate priority sector in the bill, Mr. Speaker, consistent with the National Adaptation Plan and the Nationally Determined Contributions are water, agriculture, fisheries, natural resources management, resilient ecosystems, infrastructure, spatial planning, education, health, tourism, energy, and transportation. And Mr. Speaker, this is consistent with a point that I attempted to make earlier when I said that every facet of society is impacted by climate change. Mr. Speaker, with less rainfall, Mr. Speaker, you have a problem with the availability of water. And when there's no water, it affects your hospitals. When you have an insufficient supply of water at the community level, Mr. Speaker, it means that schools cannot be serviced adequately. And there have been times when we've had to dismiss schools, sending children home at 12 o'clock, resulting in a loss of instruction time. Mr. Speaker, very recently we visited by Tropical Storm Bread, and we saw what happened particularly to the schools in the south. The Viewfort Primary School was impacted severely, and we had to find in excess of $1 million to restore the roof at the Viewfort Primary School. We had to find money to restore the roof at the Mogul School, and we also had to find money, Mr. Speaker, to repair the damage inflicted by that particular weather system at the Bellevue Combined School. Mr. Speaker, the definitions utilized in this bill have been extracted from the resources of the UNFCCC and the relevant websites to which they relate. So in other words, Mr. Speaker, not only are we putting forward a bill to deal with the issues of St. Lucia, but the jargon and the lexicon of the legislation sits well with what has been established by the global authority on matters of climate change, that is the UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The purpose of utilizing the set definitions, Mr. Speaker, is to ensure that there is consistency with the global understanding of the different institutions, mechanisms and ideologies. Mr. Speaker, I believe this piece of legislation is timely. It basically sets St. Lucia apart with some of our counterparts in terms of our advance we are dealing with the issues of climate change. And as I would have indicated, Mr. Speaker, from time to time we may have to revisit certain aspects of the bill making modification, but what is very important and very salient here today is the fact that we are putting into law, Mr. Speaker, a mechanism that will inform how we deal with matters of climate change and how climate change impacts the livelihoods of St. Lucia and, of course, by extension the people of the Caribbean. Mr. Speaker, this is my submission of the bill. Thank you very much.