BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE public and private sectors have partnered to celebrate World Environment Day (June 5) as small developing states acknowledge their increasing vulnerability to the effects of climate change.
Aptly given the theme “Your Planet needs You – Unite to Combat Climate Change”, the day has brought together officials from the Department of Physical Planning partnering with St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla Trading and Development Co. Ltd. (TDC) to increase awareness of the effects of climate change and to encourage environmentally-friendly practices.
According to Senior Environment Officer June Hughes, the issue of combating climate change has become more “relevant and critical” to the nation, especially now that the nation has experienced a number of devastating effects arising from recent climate abnormalities. She stressed that the negative effects would readily impact small-island states and would threaten their livelihoods and economies.
“Climate change is a very critical issue and the impacts are far-reaching and long-lasting. It will definitely affect us small island states harder. We’ve seen two one-in-100-years storms within a 10-year span which damaged our coastline. Most of our infrastructure is along the coastline, so just imagine the financial impact of repairing the coastline if more of these come,” Hughes told SKNVibes.
Although the nation’s greenhouse gas emission is often considered negligible, Hughes said it remains a critical priority to educate the nation as she underscored that it only takes small steps and simple decisions to reduce domestic reliance and usage on fossil fuels.
“It has been identified that burning fossil fuels leads to global warming. And, even though we are small, we can do simple things to reduce our [greenhouse gas] emissions. We encourage people to drive less and to conserve electricity in any way possible. The government has been researching alternative sources of energy,” she said.
According to a press release from the Office of the Prime Minister, Dr. the Hon. Denzil Douglas, he outlined the significant achievements that his government has made in relation to environmental sustainability, pin-pointing the Central Forest Reserve as one of the most “tangible steps”.
“If it becomes necessary, we as developing countries will adopt binding greenhouse gas emission targets as well. We may not be the main culprits but we too have contributed to the problem. It has been said that no man is an island but climate change is a grim reminder that no island can escape the environmental misdeeds of mankind,” Douglas said.
The public has been urged to be conscious and ‘unite to combat climate change’ and its devastating effects on vulnerable and developing states.
