A Central American government has proposed the nation's first legislation to appropriately deal with the effects of rising global temperatures.
Several bills were introduced during a September meeting of Belize's House of Representatives. As Amandala reported, one of those was the Climate Change and Carbon Market Initiatives Bill, which officials said would be the country's first bill that focuses on our warming planet.
The bill "will allow us not only to protect our land, our waters and our people, but also to benefit from the new opportunities of the global carbon market," Orlando Habet, Belize's minister of sustainable development and climate change, told Amandala.
Greater Belize reports that the bill calls for several reforms.
It would create a dedicated council and governmental department to deal with rising temperatures. It would also establish a carbon registry with strict reporting and measurement standards and a carbon market.
Lastly, the bill would require enforcement mechanisms, including penalties for those who don't meet the country's new carbon emission guidelines.
The effects of rising temperatures are being felt across the entire globe. As humans burn more dirty energy sources and create toxic air pollution, those fumes trap heat within our atmosphere. As a result, the last 10 years have been the 10 warmest in recorded history, with more heat records expected to fall in the coming years.
But Belize's location makes it especially vulnerable to these temperature changes. The country has hundreds of miles of coastline along the Caribbean Sea and is home to a spectacular coral reef system.
Studies have shown that warming ocean temperatures could destroy coral reefs, which would prove devastating to the aquatic life that calls them home. And rising temperatures have also caused sea levels to rise, which threatens entire coastal communities.
The Belize government also secured access to a $20 million loan from the World Bank, Amandala reports, that is designed to provide rapid access to relief funds during natural disasters. These disasters now occur with more frequency and severity, as warming temperatures create conditions that experts refer to as "steroids for weather."
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"This is a proud and defining moment for our nation," Habet said while introducing the bill, according to Greater Belize. "A moment when Belize takes bold action, not just for today, but for tomorrow. A moment that says to our farmers, our fishers, our youth, and our children, we will not leave you behind, and we will not leave you unprotected."
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