From Jamaica Observer

ST GEORGE’S, Grenada (CMC) — Representatives from several Caribbean countries have started a meeting here that will provide both states and the private sector representatives an opportunity of working towards achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Assistance Executive Director of the Belize-based Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) Dr Mark Bynoe, said the two-day meeting will first determine the needs of the each country and will provide guidelines to achieving the goals.

The meeting is organised by the CCCCC with funding from the Swedish government.

Bynoe said that the national determined contribution is the goal each country had set itself when they countries adopted the historic climate agreement at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris in December 2015. It has become known as the Paris Agreement.

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries and all other participating nations have already outlined what post-2020 climate actions they intended to take under the new international agreement, known as their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).

Bynoe said that the climate actions communicated in these INDCs largely determine whether the world achieves the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement which is to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C, to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C, and to achieve net zero emissions in the second half of this century.

“So, if it’s a case of weak legislation in our Caribbean territory our role in this conference is to provide states with avenues such as organisations and institutions that can assist with the process of creating an enabling environment for achieving the national determine contributions,” he said.

“The country needs will focus on the enabling environment such as your regulatory framework, capacities required to advance goals,” he said, while admitting that some countries may even have to create an entire action plan to achieve the goals they are determined to reach post 2020.

The energy and transportation sectors are top priorities to most Caribbean nations with each one setting different goals for the area.

Chairman of the Sustainable Development Council, Dr Spencer Thomas, said that Grenada has four priority areas, namely energy, transportation, agriculture and waste reduction.

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