Roadtown, Tortola - Premier Honourable Ralph T. O’Neal, OBE has voiced support for a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) proposal that Caribbean countries transform the threat of climate change into employment opportunities.

Earlier this year, Director of Sustainable Development at the CARICOM Secretariat, Mr. Garfield Barnwell delivered a presentation titled Climate Change as a Generator of Employment in Key Economic Sectors of the Caribbean at the Second CARICOM Climate Change Conference in St. Lucia.

According to a CARICOM issued press release on the workshop, efforts to address the issue of climate change provide useful opportunities to promote alternative development initiatives.

With problems associated with climate change likely to strike at the very core of Caribbean economies given the widespread dependence on tourism, it is believed that the region can help turn this adversity into opportunity.

The agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy, insurance and financial sectors have also been identified as industries most likely to be affected by climate change.

The CARICOM official said the extent of the impact of climate change will depend on the policies instituted by governments, policies which should address among other things “strengthening the skill and knowledge base in the region’s human resources, the ability to absorb environmentally friendly technologies, appropriate trade policies and adequate approaches to disaster management.”

Honourable O’Neal has stated that he fully supports the recommendations contained in the presentation made at the climate change conference. He noted too that the Government has long since recognised the importance of climate change and its potential impact on the local economy and therefore added it as a separate subject under the portfolio of the Minister for Natural Resources and Labour.

The Premier himself is a long-time advocate of learning more about climate change and has repeatedly called on residents of the Territory to garner as much information as they could about the subject. 

He has stated in the past that “climate change has the potential to affect our way of life, with its far-reaching consequences, especially for islands such as ours.”

Government has already embarked on an assessment of the vulnerability of the tourism sector given the potential impact of climate change and the goal according to the Premier is “to determine the resilience of the British Virgin Islands’ physical tourism product to withstand the impact of climate change and the ability of the sector to implement adaptation strategies.”

This and other factors demonstrate Government’s awareness of the importance of climate change and its commitment to developing strategies and policies to help the Territory adapt.