Earth Today | Committed
Clifford Mahlung and his love affair with his country
Published:Thursday | September 1, 2022 | 12:08 AM
CLIFFORD MAHLUNG, meteorologist and committed civil servant, has retired from public service after more than 40 years – three decades of that in the global climate change arena, where he was considered a gladiator, fighting to secure a safer climate for Jamaica and other small island developing states.
Now in recovery from a recent stroke that came in the wake of his participation at the latest international climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland last November, Mahlung takes stock of his civil service career, which began in 1980, and has no regrets.
He has, in fact, noted his satisfaction with having done his bit for Jamaica and particularly in the area of climate change, which is considered the most significant threat to humanity – even with the prevailing realities of the COVID-19 pandemic and a range of environmental challenges, including plastics pollution.
“I am happy with where I was. I did my best,” said the man who has been at the forefront of regional and global efforts to ensure that vulnerable countries get the required support to survive climate impacts, including extreme hurricane events, the likes of which have impacted the Caribbean over recent years.
From technology transfer to capacity-building and financing for adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage, Mahlung has lobbied for them all, including from the floors of more than 20 international climate conferences in different parts of the world as one of Jamaica’s senior climate negotiators.
Today he says, “If I could work, I would still work.”
That notwithstanding, Mahlung, 67, speaking with The Gleaner from his home in Spanish Town, feels he has left things in good hands, with the likes of Omar Alcock and Le-Anne Roper managing the mitigation and adaptation portfolios, respectively, inside the Climate Change Division (CCD) to which he was last employed.
CARIBBEAN GROUP
“It is good to have the young people. We always have a Caribbean group you can learn from and share things with it,” he remarked, recalling the modus operandi during the cut and thrust of negotiations globally.
The first female head of the CCD, UnaMay Gordon, has sung high praises for Mahlung, crediting him for, among other things, his work on Jamaica’s first, second, third, and fourth national communications on climate change, for which he was project manager.
The national communications allow countries, including Jamaica, to meet their reporting requirement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. It also affords them the chance to communicate to the world on their range of response actions.
Mahlung has also served as an executive member of the Board of the Clean Development Mechanism, which had responsibility for overseeing approval for projects designed to meet greenhouse gas emission targets under the Kyoto Protocol of 1997.
In addition to rising global temperatures and extreme weather events, climate change impacts also include rising sea levels, increased sea surface temperatures, and the growth in the prevalence of diseases such as dengue.