THE FORTHCOMING I6th United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled to begin in Cancun, Mexico, on November 29, will have both a general and specific interest for some of the world’s more “vulnerable populations”, such as Barbados.
The Cancun conference, to be in session until December I0, and for which CARICOM is to have a significant presence at technical and political levels, will be served with a major working document by a High-Level Advisory Group estblished by UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon in February this year.
Challenges in mobilising financing to combat the consequences of climate change globally, among them small and vulnerable economies in the Caribbean, Africa and the Pacific, constitute a central feature of the report from the High-Level Advisory Group that anticipates the necessity to secure US billion annually for expenditures over the next decade ending in 2020.
The Secretary General had established the Advisory Group, on which the Caribbean region is represented by Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo, to study the potential sources of revenue for financing “mitigation and adaptation activities” in developing countries.
At the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark last year, the developed nations had pledged US$30 billion to fast-track funding to assist developing countries.
Now a pilot project has been launched by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO), and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to focus, initially, on the priority needs of “seven most vulnerable populations” to adapt to the health impact of climate change.
Hence, the specific and general interest of Barbados in the coming UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun. The other six countries identified to benefit from the joint UNDP/WHO four-year project are Fiji, Bhutan, China, Kenya, Jordan and Uzbekestan.
Just recently, Barbados’ new Prime Minister Fruendel Stuart emphasised the need for national involvement in the battle to combat the problems of climate change, and urged the private sector to take a more proactive role in commitment of resources.
As the UN Secretary General observed on receiving the High-Level Advisory Group report on “climate change financing” earlier this month:
“Concessional loans are essential for adapting to climate change in the world’s most vulnerable countries, including small island developing states . . . It will need sustained political will appropriate public policy signals for the markets, and financial ingenuity. There is no silver bullet, no one-size fits all solution.”
