Roy accepts climate change as looming crisis
(CNS): Roy McTaggart
Roy McTaggart (PPM): George Town East MP, Minister of Finance and Economic Development Political Career: • Successfully ran in the 2013 as a Coalition for... More, who is positioned to become the next premier of the Cayman Islands if the PPM-Alliance returns the largest group of candidates after the general elections next week, has accepted that the biggest environmental challenge facing the country is climate change.
Despite being part of a government for eight years that has allowed its climate change policy to gather dust in the government building, McTaggart said Tuesday that this is an “area that we have to come to grips with very quickly”, as he predicted that a significant amount of land in Cayman would be underwater in the near future.
McTaggart was speaking at the final Chamber of Commerce Candidates Forum Tuesday night, when all four of the challengers for his George Town East constituency appeared to answer the questions. However, none of his opponents raised his failure as a Cabinet member for the last four years to do something about the policy, which has been sitting in his colleague’s ministry being ignored.
The GTE incumbent said we must understand what the risks are, even though they have been laid out clearly in that existing policy.
Although he accepted the risk and the need to address rising sea levels and temperatures, McTaggart did not stray from his party’s policy of depending on more development to keep the economy going. He said there would soon be a need to pull back coastal developments and to “build smart”.
Dr Frank McField also agreed that climate change was the biggest threat, but as he pointed to the loss of natural habitat, he asked who was planning and leading the country and not telling the people the truth.
However, it was the youngest candidate in these elections, Emily DeCou, who displayed an understanding of the importance of the environment and its central role in the country’s future. She explained the connections between the failings when it comes to a lack of planning and the environmental problems we now face, such as polluting development that is allowed without any sanctions, and the sea level rise as the world’s 29th most vulnerable country.
“As a flat coastal community, unless we do something urgently and immediately we are really contributing to our own demise,” she said, adding that during this time while the borders are closed government should be examining polices that can help to prepare Cayman for what is ahead for the next 10, 20, 30 years and the sustainable policies needed.
DeCou, who made the most of the platform to promote her vision, gave an extremely competent performance overall, articulating her own ideas for change as well as the challenges ahead. She came out of the debate with the edge in what will be a difficult race for all of the challengers, as they will be splitting the opposition vote to McTaggart, who is seen as the favourite.
With so many candidates on the platform, the questions were limited and the sedate model of the forum provided little room for challenges to the misleading and even inappropriate comments made by both Richard Bernard and Christina Rowlandson regarding ganja and those who use the drug. DeCou, McField and McTaggart all offered support for decriminalising the recreational use of ganja, largely to prevent young people from receiving criminal records for minor possession.
McTaggart, who claimed he was the only person qualified and knowledgeable enough to be elected, was given an easy ride through the forum, in which all of the candidates talked about the catalogue of problems facing Cayman and the problems that the two governments that McTaggart has served in have failed to address, from the specific flooding problems in the GTE constituency to the failings in education.
McField was the only candidate to focus directly on the failings of the government, but he shied away from directly criticising McTaggart and spoke a great deal about the systemic problems in Cayman society.
See the final Chamber forum on YouTube below:
Category: Election News
