Executive Director of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center (CCCCC), Dr. Collin Young is optimistic that Caribbean countries “would do more to enhance their nationally determined contributions (NDCs)” to the Paris Agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed in 2016.

Dr. Young told reporters during a virtual press brief last week Wednesday to mark the closure of the CCCCC Climate Change Adaptation Programme (USAID/CCAP), which commence in July 2016 that regional countries along with the rest of the world are in the process of enhancing their nationally determined contributions to the Paris agreement.

“…We do know that the pledges that were made are not significant enough to keep global temperatures at 1.5 or below 2 degrees Celsius and as a result we are hoping that countries will have greater ambition and submit their enhanced nationally determined contributions that outlines adaptation and mitigation efforts that they are willing to undertake to improve climate resilience adaptation and mitigation,” he said.

NDC’s embody efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

The CCAP programme was designed to assist the Eastern and Southern Caribbean region to respond to climate change through the development and implementation of adaptation initiatives and policies for sustainable economic development and disaster management.

The result of CCAP interventions was the scaling up of the region’s climate change adaptation response systems that would be sustained over the long-term.

Grenada is among 10 countries including, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname to benefit from the 4-year project.

According to Dr. Young, the project development unit set up by the CCCCC to prepare CCAP proposals on behalf of member states for submission to various donor agencies internationally, including the Green Climate Fund (GCF), is currently engaged “in various stages of submission preparation and implementation of a pipeline of projects,” geared at directly impacting the lives of people in the region to the tune of “USD2m.”

Noting that “a key part of the programme looked at how important the partnerships that were established as part of CCAP is to our continued work in trying to improve the resilience of our people in the region,” the CCCCC Executive Director said, CCAP has leveraged about “five times the amount of funds (USD10m given) by the USAID.

“That USD10m is already in the process of leveraging an additional USD50m and if we look at the pipeline of projects that were developed because of the project development management unit, we are looking at a pipeline of an additional USD200m. So, I think clearly we had a successful project implementation,” he remarked.

“We want to congratulate all of the partners in the region…the countries, the focal points that worked so willingly with us…,” he said.

Dr. Young went on: “Ultimately, what we are doing is to ensure that we have the data to make evidence-based decision making that will impact the lives of our people by improving their climate resilience and by empowering them to act on climate change.”

The USAID Regional Representative for the Eastern Caribbean, Clinton White, who also addressed the closing ceremony, reaffirmed the importance of the longstanding relationship between the countries of the Caribbean and the United States in addressing the impact of climate variability including disaster preparedness and resilience.

“…We are all sharing a risk that can become an opportunity to increase the information sharing and develop standards and policies to help strengthen our systems and minimise the effects of disasters,” he said.

He added that in looking at “the pipeline and in terms of the number of programmes and projects, the funding that are in place for years after the closure of this particular programme, we are beginning to see what impact it is having throughout the Caribbean in a positive way.”

Pledging continued support towards the efforts to combat climate change in the region, the USAID representative revealed that “currently right now, we are looking at a new 2021-2025 strategy, where this would also play a key role in what we do in moving forward in this particular area for the region”.

“So, USAID and the US government is still very much committed to supporting the Caribbean region,” he said.

Some of the key results of the Project included the purchase and supply of equipment for climate information digitisation and establishment of five data nodes, expansion of the regional modeling and data collection network through the installation of five coral Reef Early Warning Systems (CREWS) Stations, purchase and supply of 50 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) across Participating member States.

Funds were also spent on training in the use of Caribbean Climate Online Risk and Adaptation Tool (CCORAL), purchase of airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) System, which provides relevant data and information to assist with integrating climate change and risk management into national development and climate compatible planning.

Credit: The New Today, Grenada