Speeches by the Prime Minister

My colleague cohost Prime Minister Solberg of Norway Other Heads of State and Heads of Government present Excellencies Ladies and Gentlemen I am honoured to co-host with Prime Minister Solberg, this High-Level Luncheon, and I am grateful for your overwhelming support in response to our urgent call for countries to partner for climate action. For Jamaica, it was important to emphasize the term “partnership” even before talking about climate finance. Why? Because we believe a partnership approach would generate the type of response across countries necessary to create long-term mobilization of the financial resources small island developing states (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs) urgently need to prepare, adapt and indeed thrive in the wake of climate change. The presence of Heads of State and Heads of Government, Ministers, UN and other officials, key partners from near and far, is testament to the importance the international community attaches to climate finance. Within the context of the Climate Action Summit, Jamaica submitted to the UN Secretary-General, a plan to enhance our 2020 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC); which includes more ambitious targets for: renewable energy, emissions reductions, sustainable land use and forest management, low carbon transport, increased investments in sustainable infrastructure and;…

Secretary General: In attention to our mandate to lead a process of climate finance mobilization; we carefully identified and discussed each of the challenges preventing financing from reaching the most vulnerable and embarked on a thorough process of assessment of existing and new initiatives.  I am therefore pleased to report a few of our main achievements: We collectively encouraged all MDBs to scale-up climate finance ambition from project inception to project delivery, increase finance for adaptation, offer more guarantee instruments, increase private sector leverage and accelerate the deployment of more innovative financing instruments; We advocated with donor countries for an ambitious replenishment of the Green Climate Fund. Just moments before this briefing we wrapped up a luncheon with over 45 countries, both donor and beneficiaries; and I am confident that as a result new ambitious announcements will be made tomorrow; We provided the necessary space for the private sector to be part of this conversation, which generated momentum in the development of strong private sector led initiatives to properly align their investments with the Paris Agreement; We have encouraged four of the most promising initiatives* tackling different aspects of the project value chain, to develop and pilot a collaborative framework for technical assistance,…

Thank you, Madame Chair I am honoured to be representing The Most Hon. Andrew Holness, ON, MP, Prime Minister of Jamaica, at this important gathering which is a necessary precursor to the United Nations Climate Action Summit which is scheduled to take place later this month at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. I bring greetings on behalf of Prime Minister Holness who has asked me to commend UNCTAD for the foresight in organizing this meeting and for the Organization’s extensive work in this area. This year is especially relevant as climate action talks gain more momentum and rightly so. From the devastation of our sister island, the Bahamas, to the assessed impact of the raging fires in the Amazon, recent events have continued to cement what we have long believed - that climate change remains a grave concern, is a clear and present threat to human societies and many countries and ecosystems are approaching the limits of their adaptive capacities. For Jamaica, within the last few years, the effects of climate change have become more and more evident and coupled with our status as a small island developing state, our story is one which reveals how the negative…

Mr Speaker, two years ago I rose in this Honourable House to speak about the “brutality and ferocity” of Hurricanes Irma and Maria.  At that time, I reflected on the words of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit of Dominica whose island was totally devasted when he addressed the 2017 United Nations General Assembly; He said “Let these extraordinary events elicit extraordinary efforts to rebuild nations substantially” and that is the case today particularly for the Bahamas particularly the islands of Freeport and Abaco. Today; Members of this Honourable House will recall the devastating impact of Category 5 Hurricane Dorian on the neighbouring islands of the Bahamas only nine days ago on September 1. Mr Speaker, the intensity of hurricanes in recent times has clearly demonstrated the effect of climate change and the resulting economic impact. Hurricane Dorian packed wind speeds of 185 miles per hour, but what was unique about this Hurricane was that it moved at one mile per hour and therefore hovered for many hours over the area it eventually destroyed. As a result, the hardest hit parts of the Bahamas were the Great Abacos and Grand Bahama. Dorian’s movement over the Great Abacos and Grand Bahama lasted approximately…

Mr Speaker, I wish to thank the Members for their contribution to the statement that I have made, several important points have been made; the leader of the Opposition mentioned that there needs to be a master drainage study nationally and locally, Kingston and St Andrew. I wish to remind the leader of the Opposition that a master drainage study was conducted by the NWA some time ago and was completed I believe last year and I had mentioned it in my budget presentation and that gives a comprehensive overview of the gaps in our drainage system nationally. As it relates to Kingston specifically you've raised another issue which is that the construction of new roadways and not just for Kingston but also for Clarendon in particular where you have in Northern and North Central Clarendon where that new road has been  constructed; those roads literally become waterways and they channel water and the drains that were built, some of these drains fifty years ago cannot carry the volume of water that is now coming down on these roads and therefore when the roads overflow and the drains are undersized the water stays on the road for longer than it…

We're assisting the Jamaica Defence Force in airlift capacity to further assist the people of Bahamas. This is now the second time that the Government of Jamaica and the Government of Canada and the Defence Forces of both countries have worked together to provide airlift for the Jamaica Defence Force Disaster Assistance and Recovery Team. You will recall that this very team was deployed in Dominica and they had an extended deployment where they assisted greatly the country of Dominica to recover. Now, once again they are called upon to be deployed to assist the people of the Bahamas. Let me say that the threat of climate change is real. You will note that this is the second hurricane season in which we've had a category 5 hurricane and the devastation that they have caused is nothing but stunning. The devastation that has been wreaked on two islands in the Bahamas is from what we have seen from the videos and from the feedback, the devastation id almost complete in some instances. The task of rebuilding will fall to obviously the people of the Bahamas, but they will not be doing it alone. The entire Caribbean region indeed the entire…

I suspect I’ll be making closing remarks but just to say don't rush off because since I have you gathered, I have some other things I would like to share with you but just on this matter. The triple threat of guns, gangs and dons continue to exist, that is it. I want to reinforce what the Commissioner has said. The government is not using of state of public emergency as a substitute for regular policing. What the state of emergency does is to provide a respite in the number of crimes in particular murders that are taking place. It helps to expand the number of law enforcement persons that we have on the ground. It helps to restrict the free movement of the criminal enterprise and then that gives regular police and increased ability to do their work so I want you to pay close attention to what the Commissioner has said. Within the spaces that we have the state of public emergency and even outside of those spaces we have been able to interdict, bring before the courts, prosecute and have successful convictions and the commissioner gave you the number of successful convictions that we've had in St…

My fellow Jamaicans, As we celebrate our 57th year of independence, we have much to be thankful for: - The lowest unemployment rate in our history at 7.8% and youth unemployment fell by 6 percent. - The annual inflation rate is low and stable at 4.2% and the consumer price index is trending downwards. - Our credit ratings are positive, and our foreign exchange reserves are historically high levels - We have had record-breaking tourist arrivals for the last two years exceeding 4.3 million visitors with an 8.6% increase in earnings for the industry. - The deposit interest rate is at 3.2% which is a record low. - Our Stock Market continues to perform well, and the consumer and business confidence indices remain high, these are always good indicators of economic health. - The construction industry is seeing sustained growth, right across Jamaica and particularly in Kingston where we see new construction projects going up at a pace not seen in recent times. And the NHT is providing housing solutions for new homeowners like never in its history. By the end of this month, over 12,500 new housing solutions would have been provided to the market since 2017 and we…

Fellow Jamaicans, We are able to celebrate our emancipation because our great forefathers struggled for justice and human rights.  In this period, we come to terms with our past and define our future unchained. We recall the boldness of Nanny of the Maroons; the defiance of Paul Bogle; the strength and moral fortitude of Sam Sharpe who chose the gallows over slavery. We must hold true to the proud heritage they and others have given us. “We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery … others may free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind.”  Those are the words of Marcus Garvey; immortalized in song by Bob Marley. Emancipation was NOT a gift. The end of slavery was an economic imperative but more so it was hastened by the unity of the oppressed in rebellion and supported by people of conscience.   Slavery could only persist because the oppressors were able to divide us. Once there was unity and consensus emerged, freedom was inevitable. In 2009, we embarked on a formal process of consensus building called the partnership for transformation. The 2011 Partnership Code of Conduct and two (2) successive social partnership agreements provided a framework for deepening…