February 24, 2022
(CCCCC Press Release 2022/004)
(City of Belmopan, Belize) After months of delay due to COVID 19, the government of Belize was officially handed Automatic Weather Systems (AWS) by the European Union (EU) and the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC). In a brief ceremony at Central Farm Agricultural Station where 1 of 3 such stations was recently installed, Honourable Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development, Climate Change, and Disaster Risk Management, along with Her Excellency Marianne Van Steen, EU Ambassador to Jamaica, Belize, The Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Cayman Islands and Dr Colin Young, Executive Director of the CCCCC cut the ribbon to mark the inauguration of the Station.
The evapotranspiration station at Central Farm will assist the National Meteorological Service with improved capacity to better forecast and predict the weather and provide important information that governs government decisions regarding key sectors of the economy such as agriculture, tourism, and water.
In his feature speech at the ceremony, Minister Habet noted “as a country that is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, it is imperative that Belize takes advantage of these opportunities aimed at enhancing resilience to extreme weather and climatic events linked to climate change. The agricultural sector and small farmers in particular, often suffer the greatest losses from extreme events such as droughts and flooding. This, in turn, threatens the food security of Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries such as ours.” The Minister acknowledged that adequate monitoring of the weather and climate is vital for building a climate-resilient society, as such “the government of Belize, through this Ministry is committed to providing the support that will be necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of this project. This includes ensuring that these stations, as well as all others in the National Meteorological Service’s network of stations, are properly maintained and that the appropriate infrastructure is in place to adequately store, analyse and disseminate the information derived in a user-friendly and effective manner.”
Standing in solidarity with Minister Habet, EU Ambassador, Her Excellency Marianne Van Steen expressed her appreciation and satisfaction with the progress of the project being implemented by the CCCCC on behalf of CARIFORUM noting that, the Station at Central Farm in Belize is just one of a much larger EU investment across the Caribbean aimed at improving observational and monitoring networks for weather and climate change. “The Caribbean region is facing water and food insecurity due to climate change. The EU Programme is therefore aimed at strengthening how climate-related information can be used as planning and decision-making tools to tackle these issues.” At the same time, she said, “the Programme reflects the EU’s and Belize’s commitments to the Paris Agreement and is contributing to the region’s efforts in Climate Change adaptation”.
During his opening remarks, Dr Colin Young of the CCCCC expressed gratitude to the EU for their funding assistance to the Project and stressed the importance of partnerships. These gifts of Automatic Weather Stations from the EU GCCA+ Programme builds on previous investments from the EU, USAID-CCAP, and other bi-lateral donors that include the USA and Germany, he explained. Recalling the most recent devastations to the Caribbean from Hurricanes Irma, Maria and Dorian between 2017 and 2019, he lamented that, “while these hurricanes would have momentarily captured the world’s attention, the citizens of these countries continue their efforts to rebuild even as they grapple with the psycho-social impacts and trauma associated with these extreme events, even as they continue to rebuild, they also have to face the challenges from the slow-onset events, like sea-level rise, droughts, ocean acidification, all caused by climate change and other extreme events”.
Also speaking at the Inauguration Ceremony was Ms Omaira Avila-Rostant, Representative to Belize, of the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), who agreed that gathering and analysing climate data in today’s climate environment is critical. “Documenting the present and predicting the future has become important for many research institutions”, she said. Recognising that climate change and variability are “here to stay”, Avila-Rostant added “this is a production risk that needs to be constantly monitored in order to advise farmers on how to develop management techniques that bring about increased resiliency in production thereby guaranteeing food production and security”.
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The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre is an inter-governmental Caribbean Community (CARICOM) institution that is mandated by the CARICOM Heads of Government to coordinate the Region’s response to climate change. We maintain the Caribbean’s most extensive repository of information and data on climate change specific to the region, which in part enables us to provide climate change-related policy advice and guidelines to CARICOM Member States. In this role, the Centre is recognized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations Environment Programme, and other international agencies as the focal point for climate change issues in the Caribbean. The Centre is also one of the few institutions recognized as a Centre of Excellence by United Nations Institute for Training and Research. CCCCC is empowering the Caribbean Community to act on climate change.
