Members of the St. Kitts and Nevis Fire Services extinguishing a bush fire in the hills overlooking Keys Housing Development

 

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, JULY 19TH 2007 (CUOPM)– The St. Kitts and Nevis Cabinet has ratified the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.Cabinet met on Wednesday, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas and gave its official nod to the amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, named after the Japanese city in which the protocol was adopted.

 

Countries ratifying the Kyoto Protocol commit to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide, methane, sulpur hexafluoride and other greenhouse gases.

 

"These greenhouse gases interfere with the atmosphere and can cause global warming and climate change. St. Kitts and Nevis now joins all other Caribbean countries in ratifying this important protocol designed to protect the World’s fragile climate system," said Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Sustainable Development, Information and Technology, Sen. the Hon. Nigel Carty following Wednesday’s Cabinet Meeting, the second for the week.

Cabinet, which also met on Monday gave the assurance that the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Government "is very much concerned about the potential impact of climate change on the economy and on the livelihood of people in St. Kitts and Nevis, which is already prone to natural disasters, like hurricanes and floods, that are associated with climate change."

 

Carty added that the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol would make it possible for renewable energy developers in St. Kitts and Nevis in the very near future to access financing that is made available under the protocol.

He said Cabinet took the opportunity to reinforce its commitment to the development of alternative energy projects such as producing electricity from wind, household waste and sugarcane. ~~Adz:Right~~

 

Under the Kyoto protocol, industrialized countries are expected to reduce their levels of emission of greenhouse gases by 5.2 percent compared to their 1990 levels or by about 18 percent of current emission levels. Under this protocol, developed countries which are net producers (orsources) of greenhouse gases are expected to finance and supply technology for climate-related projects to developing countries which are net absorbers (or sinks) of greenhouse gases.

 

Cabinet wishes to assure all concerned that the Government is very much concerned about the potential impact of climate change on the economy and on the livelihood of people in St. Kitts and Nevis, which is already prone to natural disasters, like hurricanes and floods, that are associated with climate change.

 

Cabinet is of the view that the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol would make it possible for renewable energy developers in St. Kitts and Nevis in the very near future to access financing that is made available under the protocol."Cabinet took the opportunity to reinforce its commitment to the development of alternative energy projects such as producing electricity from wind, household waste and sugarcane," said Minister Carty.