1 Informal Thematic Debate of the United Nations General Assembly New York, NY 31 July 2007 Climate Change as a Global Challenge Presented by Kenrick R. Leslie The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre

2 Panel 1 Thematic Debate on Climate Change: the Science, the Impact and Adaptation Imperatives Round 2 “Adaptation in the context of the Caribbean region”

3 Summary of the CARICOM Programme of Adaptation (1997 – 2011)

4 A Significant CARICOM Climate Change Adaptation Decision Recognizing the vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and climate variability on the economic development and social needs of the region: –The Heads of Governments of CARICOM member states in July 2002, endorsed the creation of a permanent capacity in the region to address climate change issues. This decision resulted in the Establishment of the Climate Change Centre. –The Centre is mandated to coordinate the regional response to climate change and its efforts to manage and adapt to its likely impacts. –Further, at the their bi-annual meeting in June 2007, they approved a US$1 million for the establishment of a TRUST Fund for the initiation of regional climate change-related research by the Climate Change Centre.

5 Adaptation:- the Caribbean perspective A quote from Sir Nicholas Stern’s report states … “The less mitigation we do now, the greater the difficulty of continuing to adapt in the future”.  Present day climate variability already poses a serious developmental problem.  The proposed limit of 2 o C rise in global temperature will further aggravate the problems of climate variability, thus posing greater challenges to the region’s adaptation requirements. The level of success of adaptation initiatives in the Caribbean depends on the extent to which the international community mitigation programme can achieve the < 2 o C rise in temperature.

6 International Commitment The International Community should commit to: –taking aggressive actions to reduce GHG emissions to ensure a high success of achieving the global temperature rise of < 2 o C. This means more mitigation; –the promotion of prudent use of fossil fuel; renewable energy investments; Increase use of renewable forms of energy as a significant portion of the energy budget; –providing support of the development and exploitation of Caribbean indigenous sources of energy such as: –Wind, solar, biomass, hydro, geothermal and oceanic

7 International Commitment  Support fully the implementation of the Nairobi Plan of Action noting the need to adequately address the special circumstances of the Caribbean region:  Being among the world’s most vulnerable region to the envisaged impacts of climate change;  The countries low capacity to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change, since the costs for adaptation will be high relative to GDP.  Immediate support for implementation of no regrets adaptation options as recommended in the Stern Report.  Mobilization of the Adaptation Funds (UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol)

8 The best way to predict the future...is to create it... THANK YOU For further information please contact us at: THE CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY CLIMATE CHANGE CENTRE 2 nd Floor, Lawrence Nicholas Bldg. P.O. Box 563 Bliss Parade, Belmopan City, Belize Tel: /1104 Fax: Website: