Haiti equates climate change to an act of violence

by Desmond Brown

Haiti’s Environment Minister Joseph Jouthe has compared the climate emergency to a violent act and appealed to the international community for help to fight climate change.

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Jouthe said Haiti remains committed to strengthening its resilience to climate shocks and to contributing to the global effort to mitigate the phenomenon.But Jouthe said the country simply cannot achieve these targets without financial help. Patrice Cineus, a young Haitian living in Quebec, said access to funding has been a perennial problem for Haiti. But he believes Haiti is partly to blame for the seeming lack of inability to quickly receive financial help.

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While Haiti waits for funding, Dr. Kénel Délusca, current head of mission of a technical assistance project, AP3C, of the Ministry of Environment and Environment and the European Union, said the country remains one of the world’s most vulnerable to climate change. Though Haiti’s greenhouse gas emissions amount cumulatively to less than 0.03 per cent of global carbon emissions, it is a full participant in the 2015 Paris climate agreement and has committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emission by five percent by 2030.