In an interview with FRANCE 24, the president of Seychelles hailed the deal reached at the COP27 climate conference on a "loss and damage" fund for vulnerable nations as "good news". Wavel Ramkalawan said that "loss and damage" had been a long-standing request of small island states like his, but added that the key now was implementation and funding. "I hope that this good news is translated into reality immediately, because the world doesn't have time to wait," he said. Ramkalawan underlined that the islands of his archipelago face a very real risk of disappearance if no serious action is taken against climate change.
Seychelles has signed an oil exploration agreement with a Canadian company as a way to leverage rich countries. Ramkalawan explained that if developed countries did not want the oil to be exploited, they should offer compensation.
"The industrialised countries have to come up with clear solutions. They cannot just tell us: move from fossil fuels and go to renewable energy. They also have to sit down with us," he said.
Ramkalawan said Western countries were not living up to their climate commitments, pointing to their moves to return to coal power or spend billions on the war in Ukraine.
"What's all this hypocrisy? [Of] the amount of money that was promised (at the COP26) in Scotland – $100 billion per year – nothing so far has come through. But the minute there was a war in Europe, trillions suddenly appeared and everything was OK. The world has got to be serious. And even though we are small, we want to say to those countries: take us seriously, we are net zero. The industrialised countries are talking of 2050 (to reach net zero). Seychelles is net zero."
