PM headed to Antalya for COP31

Prime Minister Philip Davis departs Nassau this evening for Antalya, Republic of Türkiye.

He will lead The Bahamas at the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 31).

On 11 and 12 November, he will join Heads of State and Government at the Antalya Leaders Summit.

The Prime Minister will present The Bahamas Blue Carbon Programme and invite international partners to invest in it. He will also press for funded action on sea-level rise and fairer access to climate finance for small island developing states.

The Bahamas holds the largest seagrass meadows of any nation on Earth, covering 53,657 square kilometres. The meadows store carbon, support the fisheries that Bahamian families rely on and soften waves before they reach the shore. The Prime Minister will set out how The Bahamas is bringing its seagrass into its Nationally Determined Contribution for the first time.

The Government has committed $25 million to the first phase of The Bahamas Blue Carbon Programme. That phase covers national mapping, field verification and sampling, measurement and reporting, and initial seagrass conservation. Bahamian field teams are working across thirty survey areas, from Grand Bahama and Abaco to the southern islands.

The Carbon Credit Trading Act 2022 and the Climate Change and Carbon Market Initiatives Act 2022 provide the Programme’s legal framework. They allow The Bahamas to cooperate under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement as a sovereign partner.

The Prime Minister will invite governments, institutions, investors and development partners to begin talks on Article 6 cooperation, scientific partnerships, investment and future purchase arrangements. The finance raised will support conservation and benefit-sharing with Bahamian communities.

“Small island states are too often described only by what we stand to lose,” said Prime Minister Davis. “The Bahamas goes to Antalya with something to offer. Our seagrass meadows hold carbon the world cannot afford to release, and we intend to protect them in ways partners can measure and invest in.”

COP 31 runs from 9 to 20 November.