(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) When the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government meet in Georgetown, Guyana, July 2-5, 2009, matters of importance on the climate change agenda will be among global issues that will engage their attention.
CARICOM Secretary-General, His Excellency Edwin Carrington told representatives of the regional media Friday 19 June 2009 that the issue of climate change, which had engaged the attention of the Community because of its deleterious effects on small, low lying and developing states within CARICOM, would be featured prominently at the Summit. The media representatives were gathered for a Media Clinic at the headquarters of the CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana and at the Secretariat’s offices in Barbados via video conference.
With the implications for sea level rise, unpredictable changes in weather patterns and daily revelations of the impacts of climate change, Secretary-General Carrington said that this issue had “critical significance” in the upcoming discussions of CARICOM Heads of Government.
The Heads of Government are expected to consider a Draft Strategy to Build the Resilience of the Caribbean Community to Climate Change, which will be presented by the Hon. Stephenson King, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia and Lead Head of Government with responsibility for Sustainable Development in the CARICOM Quasi Cabinet.
The CARICOM Secretariat, the Caribbean Community Centre for Climate Change (CCCCC), and other experts in the field have been working in collaboration to articulate the regional strategy for climate change mitigation and adaptation that would guide the Community in its efforts to address this phenomenon in a sustainable manner.
Dr. Edward Greene, Assistant Secretary-General (ASG), Directorate of Human and Social Development, said that a significant part of the Heads of Government’s discussion on Climate Change would be dedicated to the Region’s preparations for the 15th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP-15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), scheduled for 7-18 December, 2009 in Denmark, Copenhagen.
Caribbean negotiators have reported success having completed the first round of negotiation on the Text of the Draft Declaration for the New Climate Change Agreement in Bonn From, Germany, 1-12 June, 2009. The new global climate change agreement would replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol which sets targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
ASG Greene stated Regional negotiators were now “very well placed” to articulate the Region’s interest in Copenhagen, particularly with respect to the stabilisation of the atmospheric green house gases at 1.5 centigrade. The issue of sustainable preservation of standing forests, as a mitigation approach to climate change, championed by His Excellency Bharrat Jagdeo, President of Guyana, would also form part of the discussion at the upcoming Summit.
