(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ministers of Government with responsibility for the Environment begin a two-day meeting in Georgetown on Thursday 17 April 2008 aimed at charting a course to curb environmental degradation.
At least nine Ministers will attend the Twenty-Fifth Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED).
In brief remarks at the start of the officials meeting on Monday 14 April, 2008, Ministers at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC), Dr. Edward Greene, Assistant Secretary-General, Human and Social Development and Mr. Navin Chandarpal Presidential Adviser, Sustainable Development, Guyana, who was chairman of the meeting, both said the meeting was long overdue, given the National, Regional and International focus that the environment was attracting.
Mr. Garfield Barnwell, Director, Sustainable Development, CARICOM Secretariat said the COTED Meeting was also geared at crystallizing the Region’s negotiating position on climate change, which has emerged as a multi-faceted development issue. He expressed optimism about the kind of progress the meeting could make given the importance of the issues and the determination of delegates to find solutions to the environmental challenges.
Among the issues on which the Ministers will deliberate – and which flowed from the Meeting of officials which wrapped up on Tuesday – are a Common Environment Policy (CEP) which proponents are of the view will steer the Region cohesively towards a clean future, environmentally; water management; sustainable use of resources; financing environmental management; and disaster management.
On Tuesday, the officials engaged in spirited discussions on Marine Resource Management and Energy issues, including Bio-Energy, a relatively new area for CARICOM Member States. The officials also deliberated on the implementation of the Multilateral Energy Agreements (MEAs).
In addition to Member States, attendees at the COTED Meeting include representatives of organizations including the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI), the Caribbean Meteorological Organisation (CMO), the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the University of the West Indies (UWI), the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA), and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
