“Climate change is a disaster for Panama. Last year, we had one of the driest years on record and we didn’t have enough rain to fill the Panama Canal watershed, and this cost a country a billion dollars which we do not have. This was terrible,” Panama’s Environment Minister Juan Carlos Navarro told Rudaw on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
Referring to the environment as one of the most pressing issues in the world, Navarro said that current policies are “destroying the planet and so we are destroying ourselves.”
Another key area of concern for Panama is illegal immigration, according to Navarro.
“We are getting hit very hard and destroyed by migration - by illegal, irregular migration,” he said. “Last year, we had 520,000 illegal migrants cross the border through Panama on their way to the US.”
These migrants included those coming from Africa, Ecuador, Haiti, Colombia, and Venezuela, Navarro added, and explained that some of them are migrating because of climate change.
The theme for this year’s week-long UNGA is “Leaving no one behind: acting together for the advancement of peace, sustainable development, and human dignity for present and future generations,” according to the UN.
