Ahead of next week’s CARICOM Heads of Government Inter-sessional Meeting in Belize, Ministers responsible for Climate Change are holding a two-day review of the ground breaking COP 21 Meeting in Paris and assessing the opportunities for the Region. The meeting, convened by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, wraps up in Belize City today.
The purpose of the meeting is to review and analyse the outcomes of the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held this past December in Paris, France. COP 21 produced the “Paris Agreement”, a new international agreement on climate change in which countries agreed to limit global warming to as far below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial level as possible and striving to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and work toward low carbon development, and to ensure financial flows consistent with a low greenhouse gas emission pathway and climate resilient development.
CARICOM Member States contributed significantly to the drafting of the Paris Agreement and a successful outcome in Paris. The meeting will also review the commitments that the region made and the opportunities that will arise for Member States which become Parties to the Agreement.
The Paris Agreement will be opened for signature and ratification at the United Nations in New York in April 2016. CARICOM Members will be urged to participate in this signing ceremony and become parties to the Paris Agreement to bring it into force as soon as possible. The Paris Agreement will enter into force when at least 55 countries representing at least 55 per cent of global emissions become Parties to the Agreement.
The CARICOM climate change technicians will meet on Thursday and will be joined by their ministers on Friday. The Executive Director has invited the ministers to an event at the Headquarters of the Centre in Belmopan on Saturday to showcase the work of the Centre in supporting the CARICOM Member States and to brief them on the additional support available to them through the Centre.
Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC)
