His Excellency Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of CARICOM His Excellency Fraser Wheeler, British High Commissioner to Guyana Ms. Elizabeth Carriere, Head of DFID in the Caribbean Other Distinguished Guests Members of the Media Colleagues Ladies and Gentlemen

Today’s signing ceremony would not have been possible without the determined efforts of two key people present here today – Commissioner Wheeler and Director Barnwell of the CARICOM Secretariat. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank them for their support in developing the project and ensuring the funds for its execution.

In my opinion, the initiation of this project could not have been better timed as countries of the world will shortly begin to seriously debate issues that will lead to a comprehensive multilateral framework for action on climate change for the period after 2012 which would have lasting impact on future generations.

Permit me to recap some of the not so recent, as well as the more recent, climate change-related findings and their relevance to our Region and to this project.

In 1990 the IPCC issued its first assessment report in which it was stated, and I quote – “We are certain of the following: there is a natural greenhouse effect … emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gasses: CO₂, Methane, CFCS and nitrous oxide. These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect, resulting on average in an additional warming of the earth’s surface.”

In February of this year, seventeen years later, in its Fourth Assessment Report, the IPCC confirms:

• “warming of the climate system is unequivocal”
• rainfall patterns are changing, resulting in both drought and heavy precipitation events
• sea level is rising at an accelerated rate, and
• the frequency of stronger tropical cyclones has increased during the latter third of the last century and continuing into the current century.

In October 2006, the economics of climate change was presented to the world in the Stern Review. The Report asserted, and I quote, “The impacts of climate change are not evenly distributed – the poorest countries and people will suffer earliest and most”.

On September 24, 2007, the Secretary-General of the United Nations convened a Special Meeting on Climate Change in recognition of the seriousness of the issues relating to climate change, with the intention that world leaders will send a powerful, political signal to the negotiations at the COP 13 in Bali, in December. The message should be that “Business as Usual” will not do, and that the leaders are ready to work jointly with others towards a comprehensive Multilateral Framework for Action on Climate Change for the period after 2012.

Here in the Caribbean we are already experiencing some of the impacts of climate change, and they are consistent with the observed variations at the global and northern hemispheric levels. For instance, during the last decade observations have confirmed that the Caribbean has been experiencing

1. Lower diurnal temperature variation and much warmer nights;

2. More frequent incidences of coral bleaching;

3. Hurricanes developing at lower latitudes and becoming more intense in a shorter period of time;

4. More frequent outbreaks of agricultural pest infestation;

5. More extreme drought and flooding;

6. More incidences of extreme temperature-related stress events to humans, animals, and plants.

The higher atmospheric temperatures are already negatively impacting the Region’s fragile economy and environment through:

1. the need for increased use of energy derived from imported fossil fuel;

2. increased loss of water through higher evaporation rates;

3. higher use of limited water resources for agricultural irrigation;

4. salt water intrusion into coastal aquifers;

5. less available water for the recharging of aquifers;

6. increased prevalence of vector-borne diseases.

Similarly, the warmer sea temperatures support the development of more intense hurricanes at lower latitudes. More recently, hurricanes Dean and Felix began as Category One hurricanes near the Eastern Caribbean Islands, but reached the Western Caribbean as Category Five hurricanes in a very short period.

The economy and livelihood of four of the CARICOM Member States were impacted by Dean – Dominica and Saint Lucia in the Eastern Caribbean, Jamaica in the Central, and Belize in the Western. For the first time in recorded history, the Region was the formation of a hurricane south of 100 latitude in 2004. This hurricane, named Ivan, devastated the island of Grenada, which resulted not only in the loss of life and property, but also in a 200% loss in GDP.

Changing rainfall patterns have resulted in extended droughts in the North-Western region, and increased flooding in the south-eastern. Guyana and Suriname experienced life-threatening floods in 2005, 2006 and 2007, while Cuba, Jamaica and Belize, on the other hand, dealt with unprecedented droughts.

During 1999-2002, the climate conditions supported a more severe than normal outbreak of the pine bark beetle in the Mountain Pine Ridge area of Belize. The outbreak resulted in over 100,000 acres of pine forest reserve being destroyed.

Regional research is showing that a further 1⁰C rise in sea temperature will lead to significant reduction in some species of fish such as the yellow tuna, dolphin, parrot fish and the black tazard. Similarly, for a 2⁰C rise in atmospheric temperature, the yield in agricultural products such as the red kidney beans, maize, and rice will decrease by some 14-20 percent.

Even if the GHG emissions were to be stabilized at the current level, we can expect a further warming of the global climate by another 2⁰C. A further 2⁰C rise in temperature will pose significant, and in some cases insurmountable, challenges to the Region’s economic and social viability..

Climate change is no longer of interest only to the atmospheric scientist. As Sir Nicholas Stern rightly concluded it has serious economic and social implications, and should be addressed as such.

The purpose of this project is the development and implementation of a comprehensive Regional Strategy on Climate Change-Related Matters, such that the Region will be better placed to promote its interests internationally, and will be better organised and informed to deal with the threat it faces.

It is envisaged:

a. that the Strategy will be developed through a series of national consultations;

b. the Draft Strategy will be presented to the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) for endorsement and its recommendation for adaptation by CARICOM Heads of Government. The Strategy will be the basis for:

i. Training in capitals on climate change-related international negotiation and lobbying techniques (linked to, but not over-lapping with, Global Opportunities Fund (GOF) Project for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs)).

ii. Training in regional process management (linked to EC Regional Programme to enhance regional economic integration : EC Regional Delegation support this)

iii. Technical training of economic policy makers (Drawing on Stern Report analysis);

iv. Technical training of physical/development planning policy makers.

v. Increased capacity in the Region to incorporate climate change criteria in national development planning.

I have presented in this brief address the reason and purpose of the Project and how the Draft Plan will be developed and implemented.

Thank you.