1. CARICOM WORKSHOP ON ENVIRONMENTAL STATISTICS Concerns and Issues on the Environment and Statistics in the Caribbean Community Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines April 7-8, 2014

2. Historical Perspective United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio Conference ) 1992 Chapter 40 Agenda 21 Information for Decision- making “ Indicators of Sustainable Development need to be developed to provide solid bases for decision-making at all levels” Multilateral Environmental Agreements e.g. Biodiversity Convention, Climate Change and Land Degradation, require environmental Statistics for Reporting purposes

3. Historical Perspective Barbados Programme of Action 1994, out of the United Nations Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States-spoke specifically to vulnerability indices and measures of vulnerability 2000- Millennium Development Goals (Goal 7 Environmental Sustainability)

4. Historical Perspective 2002- Ten year review of Rio Convention-set targets for progress in key environmental performance e.g. biodiversity and forests, Johannesburg Plan of Implementation Mauritius Strategy, 2005 brought the focus back to Sustainable Development Indicators and highlighted the lack of availability of and reliability of data and weak national institutions in information systems

5. Rio +20 Sustainable Development Goals Beyond GDP measures: developing indicators that are clear and appealing as GDP but more inclusive of social and environmental aspects e.g. EU Quality of Life Indicators Post 2015 Development Agenda Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States scheduled for Apia Samoa, September 2014 http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org

6. CARICOM Response Programme on Environmental Statistics At level of Ministers of Environment –noted the agrees set of Key Environment Statistics Heads of Government : Called for Task Force on SIDS Meeting and Post 2015 Development Agenda

7. Thank You Amrikha Singh Senior Project Officer Sustainable Development CARICOM Secretariat amrikha.singh@caricom.org