Bahamas Launches Blue Carbon Programme at Climate Summit With US$100 Million Across Two Phases
Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis formally launched The Bahamas Blue Carbon Programme at the Leaders Summit of the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 31) in Antalya, Türkiye, on November 11, announcing US$100 million across two phases to turn the largest seagrass meadows on Earth into a measured, investable national asset. The Leaders Summit runs on November 11 and 12, within COP 31 from November 9 to 20.
Speaking at the launch event in the CARICOM Pavilion, Davis said The Bahamas' seagrass meadows cover some 53,657 square kilometres, the largest of any nation on Earth. The meadows store carbon in the seabed, support the fisheries Bahamian families rely on and soften waves before they reach the shore. The Bahamas is bringing its seagrass into its Nationally Determined Contribution for the first time.
The government has put its own money in first. It has committed US$25 million to the programme's first phase, covering national mapping, field verification and sampling, measurement and reporting, and initial conservation, with Bahamian field teams working across thirty survey areas from Grand Bahama and Abaco to the southern islands. In his November 11 remarks, Davis announced an additional US$75 million for Phase Two, US$100 million in total. Phase Two will also launch the Bahamas Blue Economy Institute, a lasting national institution to oversee the stewardship of any proceeds from carbon credit transfers.
The legal framework has been in place since 2022, when The Bahamas passed the Climate Change and Carbon Market Initiatives Act and the Carbon Credit Trading Act, allowing it to cooperate under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement as a sovereign partner. The Office of the Prime Minister said Davis will invite governments, institutions and investors to open talks on Article 6 cooperation, scientific partnerships and investment, with finance raised supporting conservation and benefit-sharing with Bahamian communities.
Davis was blunt about why his country is acting on its own. In his remarks he recalled that Hurricane Dorian sat over the Northern Bahamas for more than a day in 2019 and took more than a quarter of the economy with it. In January he told Parliament that no one is coming to save The Bahamas and that Bahamians must save themselves. In Antalya he pressed for the United Nations General Assembly's first Declaration on Sea-Level Rise, adopted in September, to be turned into funded action, and called for climate finance that small island developing states can reach quickly and on fair terms.
While Davis is abroad, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Science and Technology I. Chester Cooper serves as Acting Prime Minister until Davis returns to The Bahamas on November 13. The Office of the Prime Minister also noted that The Bahamas and Türkiye marked fifty-two years of diplomatic relations on November 5.
(Source: Office of the Prime Minister of The Bahamas)
Source: Office of the Prime Minister of The Bahamas
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：巴哈马 San Salvador 岛 Graham 港的海草甸，由 Thalassia 与 Syringodium 混生。照片：James St. John，CC BY 2.0，经维基共享资源。 / Photo: A Thalassia-Syringodium seagrass bed at Graham's Harbour, San Salvador Island, The Bahamas. Photo by James St. John, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
