Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

For­mer For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs min­is­ter Amery Browne has ex­pressed shock and dis­ap­point­ment over Trinidad and To­ba­go’s de­ci­sion not to par­tic­i­pate in a key Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly vote on a cli­mate-re­lat­ed res­o­lu­tion tied to an ad­vi­so­ry opin­ion from the In­ter­na­tion­al Court of Jus­tice (ICJ).

The draft res­o­lu­tion, tabled by Van­u­atu along­side a re­gion­al­ly di­verse group of mem­ber states, sought to re­in­force the au­thor­i­ty of the ICJ’s ad­vi­so­ry opin­ion on cli­mate change and af­firm gov­ern­ments’ com­mit­ment to in­ter­na­tion­al law and mul­ti­lat­er­al co­op­er­a­tion in ad­dress­ing the cli­mate cri­sis.

The res­o­lu­tion did not re­quire una­nim­i­ty to pass, with on­ly a sim­ple ma­jor­i­ty need­ed. How­ev­er, sup­port­ers ar­gued that a strong ma­jor­i­ty vote would have demon­strat­ed con­tin­ued in­ter­na­tion­al back­ing for col­lec­tive cli­mate ac­tion and sol­i­dar­i­ty with vul­ner­a­ble na­tions, in­clud­ing Small Is­land De­vel­op­ing States (SIDS).

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Dr Browne ques­tioned the gov­ern­ment’s ab­sence dur­ing the vote, es­pe­cial­ly af­ter Trinidad and To­ba­go’s del­e­ga­tion had re­cent­ly em­pha­sised cli­mate is­sues and the con­cerns of SIDS at a Unit­ed Na­tions fo­rum.

“At that fo­rum, which is a town hall-style fo­rum with ques­tions and an­swers from the au­di­ence, the Trinidad and To­ba­go del­e­ga­tion made heavy weath­er of our strong po­si­tion and em­pha­sis on cli­mate and on the en­vi­ron­ment and spoke about is­sues re­lat­ed to SIDS and pos­tured as if this was a pol­i­cy pri­or­i­ty for Trinidad and To­ba­go at this time,” Browne said.

He not­ed that, with­in a short space of time, the coun­try failed to sup­port the res­o­lu­tion when it came be­fore the Gen­er­al As­sem­bly.

“And then 24 hours lat­er, when the Gen­er­al As­sem­bly con­venes a vote on a crit­i­cal mat­ter re­lat­ed to the In­ter­na­tion­al Court of Jus­tice’s ad­vi­so­ry opin­ion on the mat­ter of glob­al cli­mate and the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of mem­ber states, es­pe­cial­ly larg­er states, Trinidad and To­ba­go didn’t vote yes, didn’t vote no, didn’t even par­tic­i­pate by vot­ing to ab­stain, but ab­sent­ed them­selves from the vote at that time,” he said.

Browne de­scribed the move as a sign of in­con­sis­ten­cy and weak­ness in the coun­try’s for­eign pol­i­cy ap­proach.

“But that is a demon­stra­tion of in­con­sis­ten­cy, that’s a demon­stra­tion of cow­ardice, and that’s an­oth­er demon­stra­tion of a for­eign pol­i­cy that has com­plete­ly fall­en apart,” Browne stat­ed.

He fur­ther ar­gued that Trinidad and To­ba­go, as a Small Is­land De­vel­op­ing State, should have tak­en a clear­er stance on an is­sue di­rect­ly tied to cli­mate vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and in­ter­na­tion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty.

“We are a small is­land de­vel­op­ing state, and the fact that we couldn’t even have the gump­tion to par­tic­i­pate in that vote at the Gen­er­al As­sem­bly on the ICJ ad­vi­so­ry opin­ion demon­strates just how low this coun­try has sunk with re­spect to our for­eign pol­i­cy and our con­sis­ten­cy and sol­i­dar­i­ty with is­sues re­lat­ed to SIDS, small is­land de­vel­op­ing states,” he added.

Guardian Me­dia is await­ing a re­sponse from For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers on the de­vel­op­ment.