President Faure congratulates Wills Agricole for his green champion award |24 December 2019

Mr Agricole poses with his award in the company of President Faure (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

President Danny Faure met Wills Agricole yesterday at State House to congratulate him for the ‘Transformational Country Green Champion Award’ he won recently.

Mr Agricole, who is the principal secretary for energy and climate change, formed part of the Seychelles delegation at COP25/Blue COP UN Climate Conference which took place in Madrid, Spain at the beginning of December. There, he won one of the six Green Climate Fund (GCF) first ever Green Champion Awards in the Transformational Country Green Champion category.

“This is another win for Seychelles. It was Lorna Regina Bautista Legarda, deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines who presented the Transformational Country Champion award,” said Mr Agricole.

He further expressed pride in the country’s climate action thus far. Stating that the award recognises dedication towards effective coordination of climate action from a small island developing state, he stressed that it stands as a pillar of his life’s work and denotes Seychelles’ sustainability credentials fulfilled so far and spotlights the urgent need to find solutions to the climate emergency.

During the meeting with the President, Mr Agricole shared the outcomes of the COP 25 and also noted that “one of the few bright spots in this year’s negotiation process was the creation of an opening for financing for loss and damage — a major issue for particularly vulnerable countries, like all small island developing states (Sids) like Seychelles, to be considered by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) at its next board meeting in the first quarter of 2020”.

Secondly, Seychelles welcomed this Blue COP’s strong show of support for our oceans. Oceans are central to the integrity of the climate system and has now been included in the UNFCCC Negotiations of which Mr Agricole, Seychelles chief negotiator, pushed for. Now Action must follow swiftly.

Mr Agricole has dedicated many of his years in this cause and this award, as he said, is a win for Seychelles.

Vidya Gappy