Regional experts on Climate Variability and Change in the Caribbean will meet in Barbados 25-27 October 2004 to prepare a joint plan of action for Regional risk reduction. They will also review specific issues including disaster management, adaptation to climate change, and the increasing risk and frequency of weather-related disasters.
The meeting is being organised by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Centre for Environment and Development of the University of the West Indies (UWICED). The meeting is especially significant because of the need to ensure that the Region is better prepared in future for extreme climatic events, and to seek resources and support from the international community at global conferences including the Review of the Barbados Programme of Action (BPOA) for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in Mauritius, and the Second Conference on International Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan, in January 2005.
Commenting on the importance of the meeting, Interim Director of the CCCCC, Dr. Ken Leslie said, “Having experienced disasters of such magnitude in Grenada, Jamaica, the Caymans and Haiti, and to a lesser extent in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Tobago, we must have a plan. What we are doing is bringing together the climate change and disaster experts and working on a joint strategy that will be the blueprint for the future. At the same time, we have to be able to mobilise resources internally and externally to help us to mitigate disasters and adapt to climate change. They are real and omnipresent threats to our Region.”
Contact:
Mr. Tony Deyal
tdeyal@yahoo.co.uk
