BASSETERRRE, St. Kitts – A conference aimed at tackling a number of challenges facing the Caribbean region because of Climate Change has kicked off in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
The Caribbean Climate Change Conference has brought together a number of key stakeholders to address the role of climate information in shaping and implementing Climate Policy and programmes in the Caribbean region.
That conference is seen as a key driver in making the Caribbean more climate resilient, since it comes against the backdrop of the region being affected by the passage of two powerful Category 5 hurricanes.
According to Guisella Corona from the EU Gcca Supporting Facility,who chaired yesterday’s (Oct. 9) opening ceremony, the conference would seek to discuss “the crucial nexus of science-policy to build the required resilience capacity and programmes in the Caribbean region, and integration of climate variability and change into national and regional development planning and implementation”.
He explained that the Caribbean region would soon be seeing significant decreases in precipitations levels.
“We would see a decrease of 10 to 20 percent of the precipitation in the region. In terms of temperature change – despite it being in Fahrenheit - you would see an increase and a decrease depending on the scenarios between two to seven Fahrenheit.”
Forecasters and scientists believe that Small Island Developing States (SIDS), including St. Kitts and Nevis, and the Caribbean region would be mostly affected by the changing climatic conditions.
They have projected that sea levels would rise, threatening low-lying countries, while the temperatures are expected to increase – likely causing the outbreak of mosquito-borne diseases.
Going a bit further, Corona stated that the rising sea temperature would have an adverse social impact on the region, noticeably in their economic activities.
He noted that it is a consequence that all countries in the Caribbean would have to grapple with.
It was outline that over the last decade, scientists have expected to see a two-degree increase of the temperature of the sea surface water between 2009 and 2100.
“…it is something that will happen and it is part of our discussion today, maybe to see what kind of adaptation we could put in place and what policy we could put in place to deal with this,” Corona said.
According to the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center, the meeting is being held under the theme “Adaptation in Action”, which its Deputy Executive Director and Science Advisor, Dr. Ulric Trotz said it best describes the focus of regional institutions and countries in the face of threats posed by Climate Change.
