KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth & Job Creation Matthew Samuda says he is hoping for a progressive outlook coming out of the 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29).

He was speaking in a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) interview Monday morning.

COP29 is taking place in Azerbaijan’s capital city, Baku between November 11 and November 22.

Some nations have already indicated their absence from the week-long conference, which Minister Samuda, who has responsibility for Water, Environment, Climate Change, and the Blue & Green Economies, has expressed concern about.

“Climate change is something that sometimes falls to political fodder whereas we won’t comment on the geopolitics. We are particularly concerned that it has fallen more to the political fodder in the current environment whereas it’s becoming patently clear to all who see that the climate has already changed. It is changing at a much faster rate than was originally projected, and that has manifested in several climatic events which has devastated our region,” Samuda said in the BBC interview.

He noted that just this year, Jamaica has faced already one major hurricane and a major tropical storm which have devastated infrastructure and agriculture.

“So, the time is now. We are concerned that it appears at COP29, the urgency seen at previous COPs doesn’t appear to be there, but let’s not throw in the towel before the negotiations really begin,” Samuda said.

He noted, however, a few positive signs including the United Kingdom taking leadership through the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) partnership and through several finance coalitions to unlock the global financial architecture, especially for small island developing states (SIDS) and least developing countries (LDCs).

“For that, we are happy. We’re also seeing, I believe, a more positive posture from new leadership of the GCF (Green Climate Fund). But one would understand the apprehensions that Jamaica and other SIDS globally would face, because we’ve been here before, we’ve had promises before,” Samuda explained.

In addition, the minister pointed out that climate change is “coming home to developed nations”.

“Just recently, you’d have seen massive floods in Spain. We’ve seen frightening wildfires in Australia. So, it’s not limited. The effect of climate change is not limited purely to SIDS and LDCs. So, because the chicken is coming home to roosters they would say, we believe there’s a greater urgency now,” Samuda said.

“But my own personal feeling is that you won’t get everything unlocked in this particular COP. But for us, it’s very important that the text that is negotiated reflects a progressive outlook in releasing these funds to those who most need it, which is SIDS like us and LDCs. We think there has to be an overhaul of the financial architecture,” he continued.

He stressed that Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley have been advocating for an overhaul of the global financial architecture for years.

“Most of all, one of the things that we’ve been calling for and will be very firm on in this COP is that SIDS and LDCs must be represented in the decision-making bodies for these global financial mechanisms. It can’t be limited solely to donor nations which then apply standards that just simply can’t work in economies less developed,” Samuda added.