The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre has received funds from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for the purpose of implementing the project“Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: Pursuing Climate Resilient Development by Enhancing the National Adaptation Planning Process (VCR-RS-005)” and intends to apply a part of the proceeds towards payments for the Contract “National Adaptation Plan, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines”.
The Centre now invites interested and eligible consulting firms to submit Full Technical AND Financial Proposal
Requests for Clarification: email: procurement@caribbeanclimate.bz Attention: Ms. Allison Williams, Procurement Officer. Requests for clarification should be received by the CCCCC no later than: Friday 24 November 2023.
Consultants are advised that the responses to requests for clarification will be posted by Thursday 30 November 2023 on the CCCCC’s webpage at: https://www.caribbeanclimate.bz/category/opportunities/.
Deadline for submission of Proposals is on or before 2:00pm (GMT-6), Friday 8 December 2023
For more information, peruse the official request for proposals and other supporting documents here.
The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (the Centre) has received funds from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for the purpose of implementing the project “Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: Pursuing Climate Resilient Development by Enhancing the National Adaptation Planning Process (VCR-RS-005)” and now invites firms to submit proposals to provide services for the contract “Assessment of the Climate Change Risk, Vulnerability and Adaptation Capacity of the Tourism Sector, the Coastal and Marine Environment, and of four Community Livelihoods in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines”, Contract 76/2023/GCF/SVG/CCCCC”.
More details on the services to be provided can be found in the Terms of Reference and other supporting documents found here.
Requests for Clarification: email: procurement@caribbeanclimate.bz Attention: Ms. Allison Williams, Procurement Officer. Requests for clarification should be received by the CCCCC no later than: Monday 16 October 2023. Consultants are advised that the responses to requests for clarification will be posted by Monday 23 October 2023 on the CCCCC’s webpage at: https://www.caribbeanclimate.bz/category/opportunities/
The deadline for the submission of Proposals is 2:00pm (GMT-6), 3rd November 2023.
(City of Belmopan, Belize; April 13, 2021.) The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC/5Cs) expresses its unwavering solidarity and well wishes to the Government and People of St Vincent and the Grenadines in the wake of the volcanic eruptions at La Soufriere that started on Friday, April 9 as well as to the Governments and people of Barbados and Saint Lucia, who are also being impacted from volcanic ashfall.
Unfortunately, the devastation resulting from these volcanic episodes presents yet another challenge to our Region’s health, food, and socio-economic systems, while it is still battling with the gripping effects of COVID-19 and the debilitating effects of climate change.
The CCCCC notes the coordination and mobilization of resources and efforts by Regional governments, Regional Agencies and Partners to provide relief and emergency aid to those affected. We encourage all our Caribbean citizens to continue supporting our sister-islands/countries of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, and Saint Lucia by providing donations and other assistance through nationally coordinated relief efforts.
You can also pledge your contribution to the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission’s coordinated initiative, the “Stronger Together Campaign: OECS Emergency Response for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines”. See how to pledge here.
________________________________________________________________________
The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre coordinates the region’s response to climate change. Officially opened in August 2005, the Centre is the key node for information on climate change issues and the region’s response to managing and adapting 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 through the CARICOM Secretariat. 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 a United Nations Institute for Training and Research recognised Centre of Excellence. For more information, see www.caribbeanclimate.bz.
-END-
Through the funding support provided by the Global Affairs Canada and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean (EnGenDER), seeks to further integrate gender equality and human-rights based approaches into disaster risk reduction (DRR), climate change (CC) adaptation and mitigation; environmental management frameworks and interventions. EnGenDER will also identify and address some of the gaps to ensure equal access to DRR and climate change and environmental solutions for both men, women, boys and girls in nine Caribbean countries (Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname).
The overall objective is to develop Gender-responsive Budgeted (GRB) Sectoral Adaptation Strategies and Action Plans (SASAPs) for the EnGenDER priority sectors of Agriculture and Water for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. This will support the application of the gender budgeting approach through assigned budgeting (estimated costing) in the development of Gender-responsive SASAPs in-addition to project concepts and finally, in the development of country specific Gender-responsive Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Plans for newly developed GRB SASAPs. These outputs would assist in achieving the project’s immediate Outcome 1110: “Improved national capacity for gender-responsive climate change adaptation and mitigation planning and implementation among state and non-state actors in the target countries”.
The objectives include:
- To develop Sectoral Adaptation Strategies and Action Plans (SASAPs) for the EnGenDER priority sectors of Agriculture and Water for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines based on the draft Agriculture Sector NAP and Water Sector NAP documents.
- To apply the of the gender budgeting approach in the development of the Gender-Responsive Budgeted (GRB) Sectoral Adaptation Strategies and Action Plans (SASAPs) and Project Concepts.
- To develop a gender-responsive Monitoring and Evaluation Plan for the newly developed Gender Responsive Budgeted (GRB) SASAPs per country.
Proposals may be submitted on or before Wednesday, October 07, 2020 and via email to the address below:
United Nations Development Programme
procurement.bb@undp.org
Procurement Unit
For further details, peruse UNDP’s official notice here.
Dr Elon Cadogan and Mr Carlos Fuller of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre attended the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Climate Week in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil from 19 to 23 August 2019.
On Monday, Regional and International Liaison Officer, Carlos Fuller introduced the Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas System (IG3IS) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) at a side event on “Science-Based Greenhouse Gas Emission Estimates in Support of National and Sub-National Climate Change Mitigation”. This was followed by presentations on two pilot projects utilizing the system in Recifre, Brazil and Mexico City, Mexico. He then spoke on the need for enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) at a Regional Dialogue on NDCs.
On Wednesday, he was a panelist at the opening of the Climate Week and then moderated a panel discussion which included Ms Lisa Morris Julian, the Mayor of Arima, Trinidad and Tobago, on “Mitigation and Vulnerability Hotspots” as part of a session on “Pathways to a Low-Carbon and Resilient Future in Latin America and the Caribbean Urban Areas and Settlements”. He then delivered a presentation on adaptation on the coastal zone of Belize and facilitated a panel discussion which followed.
Dr Elon Cadogan, the National Project Coordinator for the GCF-funded “Water Sector Resilience Nexus for Sustainability in Barbados Project” delivered a presentation on the project at the Technical Expert Meeting – Mitigation (TEM-M) on “Circular Economy Solutions and Innovations in Water and Energy Management for the Agri-Food Chain”.
The Centre’s team utilized the opportunity to engage with CARICOM representatives attending the LAC Climate Week including officials from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago and other regional experts.
The 2020 Lac Climate Week will be held in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
May 27th – 29th, 2019 | St. George’s, Grenada. The Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C) in partnership with the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), is convening a regional project development workshop at St. George’s University in Grenada from May 27th – 29th, 2019. The workshop is titled “An Approach to Develop a Regional Water Sector Programme for Building Resilience to Climate Change.”
The focus of the 3-day workshop, is to strengthen the capacity of Caribbean Water Utilities and Government Ministries with responsibility for Water Resources Management, in developing climate resilient water proposals, with the objective of preparing a Regional Water Sector Programme for the submission to the Green Climate Fund (GCF). More than twenty (20) representatives from ten (10) Caribbean countries will participate in the regional workshop. These countries include: Antigua and Barbuda, The Commonewealth of Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and The Bahamas.
The workshop will provide participants with knowledge on the GCF and funding opportunities, as well as introduce them to the GCF concept note and funding proposal template. Additionally, stakeholders will be able to identify priority activities and actions for the water sector and utilities in the Caribbean. This would feed into identifying next steps to further develop the Regional Programme for approval by the GCF.
The importance of the workshop cannot be overstated, as Caribbean Small Island Developing States are some of the most vulnerable islands to the impacts of Climate Change in the world, with water scarcity ranking as the most critical resource under threat. Addressing this existential threat, requires urgent action to mitigate its long-term impacts and accessing funding to do so is urgently needed.
GWP-C’s mission is to support Caribbean countries in the sustainable management of their water resources. While the CCCCC, as a regional entity accredited by the GCF, has the mandate to coordinate the Caribbean’s response to climate change. This collaboration between GWP-C and CCCCC, therefore presents a combination of knowledge and experience to foster building climate resilience in the Caribbean water sector. The ultimate objective being to make the Caribbean Water Secure.
For more information on the Regional Workshop please contact:
Gabrielle Lee Look
Communications Officer
Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C)
E-mail: gleelook@gwp-caribbean.org
Website: www.gwp-caribbean.org
BELMOPAN: May 8, 2019: A five-year multi-million dollar water improvement project that is expected to ease the chronic water woes of more than 190,000 Barbadians will be launched on Friday, May 10, 2019, at the Bowmanston Pumping Station, in St. John, Barbados.
The Water Sector Resilience Nexus for Sustainability in Barbados (WSRN S-Barbados) is a $45.2-million investment project that is being implemented by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) in collaboration with the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Government of Barbados and the Barbados Water Authority (BWA). Funding includes US$27.6 million in grants from the GCF and counterpart funding of US$17.6 from the Barbadian government.
The WSRN S-Barbados project is the GCF’s first single-country investment in the Caribbean. When complete, it should improve access to potable water, increase the Barbados water sector’s resilience to extreme climatic events; reduce water disruptions, introduce adaptation and mitigation initiatives through a revolving fund; improve resilience to climate change while building capacity and increasing public-private-partnerships and innovation for climate resilience in the sector.
“The Centre is proud to be working with the government and people of Barbados on such an important project,” Dr Kenrick Leslie, Executive Director of the CCCCC said, noting:
“The measures to be undertaken under this project is expected to increase adaptation and mitigation measures in households and communities; improve the country’s food security by increasing the farmers’ access to water; reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve the awareness of ordinary Barbadians to the effects of climate variability affecting the country and the wider Caribbean.”
Under the project, photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems are to be installed at the Belle, the Bowmanston and Hampton Pumping Stations to reduce the dependency of the facilities on diesel-generated electricity. Leaks are to be minimised through mains replacement and real-time monitoring. To ensure that any disruptions in the water supply would not immediately result in the loss of potable water to vulnerable sections of the population, water storage tanks and rainwater harvesting systems are to be set up in strategic locations across the island.
The Project also includes a Revolving Adaptation Fund Facility (RAFF) to assist households, farmers and small businesses by supporting a number of climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives in the water sector.
The Fund aims to support the installation of water irrigation and rainwater harvesting systems as well as water saving devices in households, public buildings, hotels and in agriculture operations. The RAFF will continue to build sustainability, advance adaptation and mitigation initiatives in the island’s water sector after the project ends.
General Manager of the BWA Mr. Keithroy Halliday noted: “WSRN S-Barbados project will reduce the BWA’s carbon footprint, create a more reliable water supply and increase capacity building in the Authority. It will have a positive impact by creating resilience to severe weather events, promoting public awareness on climate change effects threatening the water supply system and highlighting ways to mitigate against it as well as improving the sustainability of the water supply system. These initiatives collectively, are expected to assist the Government of Barbados in meeting its target of carbon neutrality by 2030.”
Project partners include the United States Agency for International Development Climate Change Adaptation Project (USAID-CCAP), the University of the West Indies (UWI), University of South Florida (USF), Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The CCCCC has received more than US$38.54 million in GCF grants for the implementation of Climate Change and readiness projects in several countries. These include the implementation of the WSRN S-Barbados Project, a project preparation grant for the Arundo donax Renewable Energy Project in Belize, and Country Readiness grants for Belize, Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
The CCCCC is a GCF direct-access Accredited Entity based in Belize and is the arm of CARICOM (Caribbean Community) that has responsibility for leading climate change actions in the Caribbean. As an Accredited Entity (AE), the CCCCC is positioned to assist government departments and agencies as well as private sector agencies in the Caribbean to access GCF funding for climate adaptation and mitigation project grants of up to US$50 Million per project. The Centre is also prepared to partner with other regional institutions to increase the region’s access to GCF and other donor funding.
The GCF is a global fund created to support the efforts of developing countries to respond to the challenges of climate change through a network of National Designated Authorities (NDAs) and Accredited Entities.
PRESS RELEASE – Belmopan, Belize; November 15 – On Wednesday November 14, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) began its handover of data collection devices purchased with funding from the USAID Climate Change Adaptation Program (USAID CCAP) to nine countries in the eastern Caribbean.
Executive Director Dr. Kenrick Leslie and officials from USAID Eastern and Southern Office (USAID ESO) handed over the first of the 50 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) and the 5 Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS) to the government St Vincent and the Grenadines at a ceremony held at the Argyle International Airport.
Under the project, one AWS and one CREWS station were installed in SVG. St. Lucia and Grenada also received one each AWS and CREWS station; two AWS and one CREWS were installed in St Kitts, while four AWS and one CREWS station were installed in Antigua.
Other beneficiaries are Guyana with 21 AWS, Suriname with 16 and the CIMH in Barbados with three. These data collection devices are to enhance the region’s ability to monitor Marine and Terrestrial Environmental parameters to provide more reliable climate and climate change data.
More than US$3 million dollars were spent under USAID CCAP to enhance the region’s data collection capabilities as the Centre and its partners seek to build the Caribbean’s resilience to climate variability and change.
The marine and land-based data gathering systems were installed with assistance from the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the governments of recipient countries. The CIMH has responsibility for maintenance under an agreement with the Centre.
The new CREWS data buoys provide Caribbean scientists and researchers with marine data that allow them to monitor reef health, sea temperature changes, winds (speed and gusts), barometric pressure, precipitation, photo-synthetically active/available radiation (PAR, light), air temperature, and salinity. Other instruments may be added through arrangement with the host countries. The AWS’ collection of critical data to support climate services and climate change modelling in the region by improving the monitoring and collection of environmental variables including temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, atmospheric pressure and rainfall.
The systems are critical tools for building resilience, providing data to support climate and climate change science and information to aid decision makers. USAID CCAP supports activities that are critical for the successful implementation of climate change adaptation strategies across the Caribbean.
-END-
The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre coordinates the region’s response to climate change. Officially opened in August 2005, the Centre is the key node for information on climate change issues and the region’s response to managing and adapting 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 through the CARICOM Secretariat. 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 a United Nations Institute for Training and Research recognised Centre of Excellence, one of an elite few. Learn more about how we’re working to make the Caribbean more climate resilient by perusing The Implementation Plan.
###
PRESS RELEASE – Belmopan, Belize; November 15 – On Wednesday November 14, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) began its handover of data collection devices purchased with funding from the USAID Climate Change Adaptation Program (USAID CCAP) to nine countries in the eastern Caribbean.
Executive Director Dr. Kenrick Leslie and officials from USAID Eastern and Southern Office (USAID ESO) handed over the first of the 50 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) and the 5 Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS) to the government St Vincent and the Grenadines at a ceremony held at the Argyle International Airport.
Under the project, one AWS and one CREWS station were installed in SVG. St. Lucia and Grenada also received one each AWS and CREWS station; two AWS and one CREWS were installed in St Kitts, while four AWS and one CREWS station were installed in Antigua.
Other beneficiaries are Guyana with 21 AWS, Suriname with 16 and the CIMH in Barbados with three. These data collection devices are to enhance the region’s ability to monitor Marine and Terrestrial Environmental parameters to provide more reliable climate and climate change data.
More than US$3 million dollars were spent under USAID CCAP to enhance the region’s data collection capabilities as the Centre and its partners seek to build the Caribbean’s resilience to climate variability and change.
The marine and land-based data gathering systems were installed with assistance from the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the governments of recipient countries. The CIMH has responsibility for maintenance under an agreement with the Centre.
The new CREWS data buoys provide Caribbean scientists and researchers with marine data that allow them to monitor reef health, sea temperature changes, winds (speed and gusts), barometric pressure, precipitation, photo-synthetically active/available radiation (PAR, light), air temperature, and salinity. Other instruments may be added through arrangement with the host countries. The AWS’ collection of critical data to support climate services and climate change modelling in the region by improving the monitoring and collection of environmental variables including temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, atmospheric pressure and rainfall.
The systems are critical tools for building resilience, providing data to support climate and climate change science and information to aid decision makers. USAID CCAP supports activities that are critical for the successful implementation of climate change adaptation strategies across the Caribbean.
-END-
The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre coordinates the region’s response to climate change. Officially opened in August 2005, the Centre is the key node for information on climate change issues and the region’s response to managing and adapting 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 through the CARICOM Secretariat. 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 a United Nations Institute for Training and Research recognised Centre of Excellence, one of an elite few. Learn more about how we’re working to make the Caribbean more climate resilient by perusing The Implementation Plan.
###
(PRESS RELEASE VIA SNO) – The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), University of Florida, and the government of St Lucia (Department of fisheries) formed an alliance to undertake a Caribbean Climate Change Adaptation Project.
According to Albert Jones, CCCCC Representative, “The project encompasses adaptation measures in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean.”
The installation of a Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS) Network took place in the Soufriere Marine Reserve on Monday, May 14th, 2018. The CREWS network will provide information to Caribbean scientists and researchers to monitor reef health, sea temperature changes, winds (speed and gusts), barometric pressure and much needed data.
“The CREWS Network will include five new countries in the Eastern Caribbean- Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, and Grenada” Jones further added.
The Department of fisheries is thankful for the initiative. Fisheries Extension Officer, Rita Straughn stated “The installation of the CREWS will help improve the monitoring of the various parameters which affect the coral reefs.”
With an increase in climate change, the CREWS network will be even more beneficial to the island with the impending start of the hurricane season as of June 1st.
Credit: St. Lucia News Online
KINGSTON, Jamaica, (published on Aug 7, 2017 by IPS) – Since 2013, Jamaica’s Met Office has been using its Climate Predictability Tool (CPT) to forecast ‘below average’ rainfall or drought across the island. The tool has allowed this northern Caribbean island to accurately predict several dry periods and droughts, including its most destructive episode in 2014 when an estimated one billion dollars in agricultural losses were incurred due to crop failures and wild fires caused by the exceptionally dry conditions.
In neighbouring Cuba, the reputation of the Centre for Atmospheric Physics at the Institute for Meteorology (INSMET) is built on the development of tools that “provide reliable and timely climate and weather information” that enables the nation to prepare for extreme rainfall and drought conditions as well as for hurricanes.
“We saw the need to develop a drought tool that was not only easy to use, but free to the countries of the Caribbean so they would not have to spend large amounts of money for software.” –INSMET’s Dr. Arnoldo Bezamilla Morlot.
Regional scientists believe the extended dry periods are one of several signs of climate change, now being experienced across the region. Dr. Ulric Trotz, Deputy Director and Science Adviser at the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) – known regionally as the Five Cs – believes climate change is threatening the “Caribbean’s ways of life”.
Dr. Trotz noted, “Some countries in the Caribbean like Barbados and Antigua are inherently water scarce. It is expected that climate change will exacerbate this already critical situation. We have seen in recent times the occurrence of extended droughts across the Caribbean, a phenomenon that is expected to occur more frequently in the future.
“Droughts have serious implications across all sectors – the water, health, agriculture, tourism -and already we are seeing the disastrous effects of extended droughts throughout the Caribbean especially in the agriculture sector, on economies, livelihoods and the wellbeing of the Caribbean population,” he said.
With major industries like fisheries, tourism and agriculture already impacted, the region continues to look for options. Both the Cuban and Jamaican experiences with forecasting tools means their use should be replicated across the Caribbean, Central and South America as scientists look for ways to battle increasingly high temperatures and low rainfall which have ravaged the agricultural sector and killed corals across the region.
Charged with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)’s mandate to coordinate the region’s response to climate change, the ‘Five Cs’ has been seeking financial support investigating and pooling regional resources to help countries cope with the expected impacts since its birth in 2004. These days, they are introducing and training regional planners in the application and use of a suite of tools that will help leaders make their countries climate-ready.
The experts believe that preparing the region to deal with climate change must include data collection and the widespread use of variability, predictability and planning tools that will guide development that mitigate the impacts of extreme climatic conditions.
The recent Caribbean Marine Climate Report card reflects the findings of the latest Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, pointing to the need for countries to ramp up their adaptation strategies. Both highlight the many significant risks climate change is expected to bring to regional economies that depend heavily on eco-systems based industries; where major infrastructure are located along the coasts and where populations are mainly poor.
The report points to the threats to biodiversity from coral bleaching; rising sea temperature and more intense storms which could destroy the region’s economy, and in some cases inundate entire communities.
The tools not only allow the users to generate country specific forecast information, they allow Met Officers, Disaster Managers and other critical personnel to assess likely impacts of climatic and extreme weather events on sectors such as health, agriculture and tourism; on critical infrastructure and installations as well as on vulnerable populations.
Training is being rolled out under the Climate Change Adaptation Program (CCAP) in countries of the Eastern and Southern Caribbean, with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). CCAP was designed to build on both USAID’s Regional Development Cooperative Strategy which addresses development challenges in the countries in that part of the region, as well as the CCCCC’s Regional Framework for Achieving Development Resilient to a Changing Climate and its associated Implementation Plan, which have been endorsed by the Heads of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries.
Regional experts and government officers working in agriculture, water resources, coastal zone management, health, physical planning and disaster risk reduction from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago are being taught to use a variety of tools.
The program aims to build resilience in the development initiatives of the countries as they tackle climate change-induced challenges, which are already being experienced by countries of the region.
At a recent workshop in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia, trainees were confident that the tools could become critical to their developmental goals. St Lucian metrological forecaster Glen Antoinne, believes the tools could be “useful for St Lucia because they are directly related to our ability to forecast any changes in the climate”.
He looks forward to his government’s adoption of, in particular, the weather tools to “support the climatology department in looking at trends, forecasting droughts and to help them to determine when to take action in policy planning and disaster management”.
The tools work by allowing researchers and other development specialists to use a range of climatic data to generate scientific information and carry out analysis on the likely impacts in the individual countries of the region. They are open source, to remove the need for similar expensive products being used in developed world, but effective, said INSMET’s Dr. Arnoldo Bezamilla Morlot.
“We saw the need to develop a drought tool that was not only easy to use, but free to the countries of the Caribbean so they would not have to spend large amounts of money for software,” he said.
“The more countries use the data, the more information that is available for countries and region to use,” Morlot continued, pointing out that the data is used to generate the information that then feeds into the decision making process.
CCAP also includes activities aimed at the expansion of the Coral Reef Early Warning System for the installation of data gathering buoys in five countries in the Eastern Caribbean providing data which, among other things will be used for ecological forecasts on coral bleaching and other marine events.
The project also provides for the strengthening of the hydro meteorological measurement systems in participating countries. This will allow for better monitoring of present day weather parameters and for generating data to feed into the climate models and other tools.
Among the tools being rolled out under the project are the Caribbean Assessment Regional DROught (CARiDRO) tool; the Caribbean Weather Generator, and the Tropical Storm Model which were designed to help experts to develop scenarios of future climate at any given location and to use these to more accurately forecast the impacts, and inform mitigating actions.
There are accompanying web portals and data sets that were developed and are being introduced to help countries to enhance their ability to reduce the risks of climate change to natural assets and populations in their development activities.
These online resources are designed to provide locally relevant and unbiased climate change information that is specific to the Caribbean and relevant to the region’s development. Their integration into national planning agendas across the region is being facilitated through regional and country workshops to ensure effective decision-making while improving climate knowledge and action.
“The resulting information will help leaders make informed decisions based on the projections and forecasting of likely levels of impact on their infrastructure and economies,” Lavina Alexander from St Lucia’s Department of Sustainable Development noted, pointing to that country’s recent experiences with hurricanes and extreme rainfall events.
As one of the tool designers, Morlot believes that by providing free access to the tools, the project is ensuring that “more countries will begin to collect and use the data, providing regional scientists with the ability to make more accurate forecasts of the region’s climate.”
Putting all the information and tools in one place where it is accessible by all will be good for the region, he said.
The Original Article is HERE
Belmopan, Belize June 26, 2017: The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Government of St Lucia are hosting a workshop on the Use of Climate Change Impact Tools and Models for Decision Making, Planning and Implementation on the island between June 19 and 30.
The Workshop is being held at the Bay Gardens Inn in Rodney Bay, Gros Islet, St. Lucia and is organised under the USAID-funded Climate Change Adaptation Program (USAID CCAP). The program aims to build resilience in the development initiatives of 10 countries in the Caribbean as they tackle climate change induced challenges which are already being experienced.
Under the project the Caribbean Assessment Regional DROught (CARiDRO) tool; the Weather Generator, the Tropical Storm Model and accompanying web portal and data sets have been developed and are being introduced to help countries to enhance their development activities to reduce the risks to natural assets and populations, due to climate change.
The tools are open source online resources to provide locally relevant and unbiased climate change information that is specific to the Caribbean and relevant to the region’s development. The integration of the tools into national policy agendas across the region is being spearheaded through regional and country workshops which are crucial to ensuring effective decision-making and improving climate knowledge and action.
The beneficiary countries are Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
The USAID CCAP project was designed to build on both USAID’s Eastern and Southern Caribbean Regional Development Cooperative Strategy, which addresses development challenges in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean, and the CCCCC’s Regional Framework for Achieving Development Resilient to a Changing Climate and its associated Implementation Plan that were unanimously endorsed by Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads.
END
TOOLS
Regional Climate Models and Caribbean Assessment of Regional Drought (CARiDRO)
The Caribbean Assessment Regional DROught (CARiDRO) was designed to facilitate drought assessment in the context of the Caribbean and Central America. It is a flexible system that should accommodate the requirements of different users. The online tool is composed of two main sections: a descriptive one where the user can find information on how to use the tool as well as terms and concepts that are useful. The other section is where the user can fill out a form with different fields in order to produce results accordingly. CARiDRO allows the user to access and to process different observed and model datasets for the Caribbean Region to produce results based on two Drought Indexes, the Standardized Precipitation Index (McKee,1993) and the Standardized Precipitation-Evaporation Index (Serrano et al, 2010).
Weather generator
The Weather Generator provides daily weather time series for use in impact assessments and impact models. It generates weather data for the future that can be used across sectors (e.g., water, agriculture, health) in the same way as historic weather series. The main benefit and utility of the WG is that it provides information for a single point location – directly comparable to what is observed at weather stations.
Tropical storm model
A simple advection model premised on past memorable and notable storms generating grids for each 15-minute period in the storm model. The variables include precipitation rate and wind speed.
Portal and observed data
This web portal provides information and datasets concerning:
- The observed climate of the present day
- Regional Climate Model projection of the future climate
- Future scenarios of weather downscaled from the Regional Climate Model projections
- Scenarios of weather derived from hypothetical tropical cyclone events
This web portal is intended for use by regional and national institutions, consultants and scientists concerned with the climate and impacts of future climate change in the Caribbean region. Accordingly, a considerable degree of contextual knowledge of climate change and its impacts, and analytical expertise is assumed. Browse the portal: http://www.cariwig.org/ncl_portal/#info
_______________________________________________________________________
The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre coordinates the region’s response to climate change. Officially opened in August 2005, the Centre is the key node for information on climate change issues and the region’s response to managing and adapting 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 through the CARICOM Secretariat. 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 a United Nations Institute for Training and Research recognised Centre of Excellence, one of an elite few. Learn more about how we’re working to make the Caribbean more climate resilient by perusing The Implementation Plan.
###
St Kitts and Nevis is getting a climate-related Caribbean Development Bank grant of $538,000 euros.
The CDB says the funds will facilitate the conducting of a climate risk and vulnerability assessment of the federation’s coastal road infrastructure.
The CDB grant will also be used to prepare designs for the rehabilitation of two high-priority sites, according to a release from the regional Bank.
The bank’s board of directors has approved millions in loans and grants for ten borrowing member countries, including the grant to St Kitts and Nevis.
In the case of Dominica the CDB has approved a US$12 million line of credit to support education and housing.
The loan to the Dominica Agricultural Industrial and Development Bank is intended to assist in providing finance for student loans, and low and lower-middle income housing that, combined, is expected to benefit 400 people.
Haiti is being given a significant CDB grant to improve climate resilience, and disaster risk management.
The CDB says the grant of US$5.5 million to the Government of Haiti is to improve climate resilience and disaster risk management on an island off the country’s southern peninsula.
St Vincent and the Grenadines is meanwhile being allocated five million US dollars in loans and grants in additional support for the transformation of the country’s energy sector.
Other projects have been approved in The Bahamas, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Suriname and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Credit: WinnFM
PRESS RELEASE – Belmopan, Belize; May 5, 2017 – The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development/ Eastern and Southern Caribbean (USAID/ESC) under the USAID Climate Change Adaptation Program (USAID CCAP) are hosting a Caribbean Climate Online Risk and Adaptation Tool (CCORAL) Training Workshop in Antigua and Barbuda on May 8th – 12th at the Department of Environment Conference Room.
CCORAL, is an online climate risk management tool that guides developers to include best-practises, strategies and systems into development planning that will ensure that across the region, there is a comprehensive approach to climate change risk assessment and adaptation for building climate resiliency in decision-making. It provides users a platform for identifying appropriate responses to the impacts of short and long term climate conditions by applying a risk management approach to development planning.
The training workshop is targeting key government, private sector and non-governmental organisations, agencies/institutions as part of a national capacity-building exercise aimed at inculcating a risk management ethos in decision-making. Through use of this online application tool, participants will evaluate national developmental issues and present their findings to senior policy and decision makers on completion of these evaluation exercises.
The USAID CCAP being implemented by the CCCCC commits US$25.6 million over four (4) years to boost climate resilient development and reduce climate change induced risks to human and natural assets in ten (10) countries. The beneficiary countries are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname.
Peruse the CCORAL Fact Sheet and the CCORAL Brochure.
-End-
_______________________________________________________________________
The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre coordinates the region’s response to climate change. Officially opened in August 2005, the Centre is the key node for information on climate change issues and the region’s response to managing and adapting 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 through the CARICOM Secretariat. 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 a United Nations Institute for Training and Research recognised Centre of Excellence, one of an elite few. Learn more about how we’re working to make the Caribbean more climate resilient by perusing The Implementation Plan.
###
PRESS RELEASE – Belmopan, Belize; May 4, 2017 – Senior officers from the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) are meeting in Jamaica with counterparts from the German Development Bank (KfW) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for discussions on a regional Coastal Protection for Climate Change Adaptation (CPCCA) Project being implemented in four Caribbean States.
The teams will be on the island between May 8 and 17 to have talks with grantees and partner organisations, and to visit the four sites that have been approved for funding support under the project for the Local Adaptation Measures (LAMs) aimed at improving the ability of vulnerable communities to withstand the impacts of Climate Change.
The CPCCA Project is being implemented by the CCCCC also called the 5Cs, with technical support from IUCN and with €12.9 million in grant funding from the KfW. It seeks to minimise the adverse impacts from climate change by restoring the protective services offered by natural eco-systems like coastal mangrove forests and coral reefs in some areas while restoring and building man-made structures such as groynes and revetments in others.
The LAMs projects in Jamaica are being managed by a mix of non-governmental and government institutions. Participating organisations are the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) in Montego Bay, the University of the West Indies Centre for Marine Sciences (UWI-CMS), for the East Portland Fish Sanctuary; the Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation (C-CAM), for the Portland Bight Protected Area; and the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation, in the Negril Environmental Protected Area.
The Jamaican project areas of the Portland Bight and Negril Environmental Protected Areas, East Portland Fish Sanctuary, and the Closed Harbour also called ‘Dump-up’
Beach in Montego Bay, are four of the 16 areas being targeted in the Caribbean. The other 12 projects are being rolled out in Grenada, Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
While in Jamaica, the teams will pay a courtesy call on Hon. Daryl Vaz, Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, with responsibility for the Land, Environment, Climate Change and Investment at Jamaica House on Tuesday, May 9. The team is also scheduled to tour the Portland Bight Protected Area on Wednesday, May 10, and are guests at UDC’s launch of the Montego Bay Project on Friday, May 12, 2017.
Peruse the JAMAICA PROJECT INFORMATION KfW
END
_______________________________________________________________________
The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre coordinates the region’s response to climate change. Officially opened in August 2005, the Centre is the key node for information on climate change issues and the region’s response to managing and adapting 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 through the CARICOM Secretariat. 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 a United Nations Institute for Training and Research recognised Centre of Excellence, one of an elite few. Learn more about how we’re working to make the Caribbean more climate resilient by perusing The Implementation Plan.
###
Caribbean scientists say fishermen are already seeing the effects of climate change, so for a dozen or so years they’ve been designing systems and strategies to reduce the impacts on the industry.
While some work on reef gardens and strategies to repopulate over fished areas, others crunch the data and develop tools designed to prepare the region, raise awareness of climate change issues and provide the information to help leaders make decisions.
In December 2017, the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) secretariat, with funding from the UK government, announced a Climate Report Card to help formulate strategies to lessen the impact of climate change on regional fisheries.
“The CRFM is trying to ensure that the issue of climate change as it relates to the fisheries sector comes to the fore… because the CARICOM Heads of Government have put fish and fishery products among the priority commodities for CARICOM. It means that things that affect that development are important to us and so climate change is of primary importance,” said Peter Murray, the CRFM’s Programme Manager for Fisheries and Development.
The grouping of small, developing states are ‘fortifying’ the sectors that rely on the marine environment, or the Blue Economy, to withstand the expected ravages of climate change which scientists say will increase the intensity of hurricanes, droughts, coastal sea level rise and coral bleaching.
In its last report AR5, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported: “Many terrestrial, freshwater and marine species have shifted their geographic ranges, seasonal activities, migration patterns, abundances and species interactions in response to ongoing climate change,” patterns that are already being noted by Caribbean fishers.
In an email to IPS, Murray outlined several initiatives across the Caribbean that ,he says are crucial to regional efforts. The Report Card, which has been available since March, will provide the in-depth data governments need to make critical decisions on mitigation and adaptation. It provides information covering ocean processes such as ocean acidification; extreme events like storms, surges and sea temperature; biodiversity and civil society including fisheries, tourism and settlements.
In addition, the 17-members of the CRFM agreed to incorporate the management of fisheries into their national disaster plans, and signed off on the Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy for the fisheries sector.
“It means that anything looking at climate change and potential impacts is important to us,” Murray says.
The IPCC’s gloomy projections for world fisheries has been confirmed by a 2015 World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report indicating that for the last 30 years, world fisheries have been in decline due to climate change. In the Caribbean, reduced catches are directly impacting the stability of entire communities and the diets and livelihoods of some of the region’s poorest. Further decline could devastate the economies of some islands.
But even as climate change is expected to intensify the effects of warming ocean waters, pelagic species could avoid the Caribbean altogether, bringing even more hardships. So the regional plan is centred on a Common Fisheries Policy that includes effective management, monitoring and enforcement systems and tools to improve risk planning.
In addition to the disaster plan and its other activities, the Community has over time installed a Coral Reef Early Warning System; new data collection protocols; improved computing capacity to crunch climate data; an insurance scheme to increase the resilience of fishing communities and stakeholders; as well as several tools to predict drought and excessive rainfall.
Worldwide, three billion people rely on fish as their major source of protein. The industry provides a livelihood for about 12 per cent of the world’s population and earns approximately 2.9 trillion dollars per year, the WWF reports. With regional production barely registering internationally, the Caribbean is putting all its efforts into preserving the Blue Economy, which the World Bank said earned the region 407 billion dollars in 2012.
The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, known regionally as the 5Cs, has coordinated and implemented a raft of programmes aimed at building systems that will help the region cope the effects of climate change.
Through collaboration with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the 5Cs has been setting up an integrated network of climate and biological monitoring stations to strengthen the region’s early warning mechanism.
And as the oceans absorb more carbon, the region’s supply of conch and oysters, the mainstay of some communities, is expected to decline further. In addition, warming sea water is expected to shift migration routes for pelagic fish further north, reducing the supply of available deep sea fish even more. Added to that, competition for the dwindling resources could cause negative impacts of one industry over another.
But while scientists seek options, age-old traditions are sometimes still pitted against conservation projects. Take an incident that played out in the waters around St. Vincent and the Grenadines a few weeks ago when whale watchers witnessed the harpooning of two orcas by Vincentian fishermen.
The incident forced Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves to announce the end of what was, until then, a thriving whaling industry in the village of Barouille. For years, government turned a blind eye as fishermen breached regional and international agreements on the preservation of marine species. The continued breaches are also against the Caribbean Community’s Common Fisheries Policy that legally binds countries to a series of actions to protect and preserve the marine environment and its creatures.
On April 2, five days after the incident, Gonsalves took to the airwaves to denounce the whaling caused by “greed” and announce pending regulations to end fishing for the mammals. The incident also tarnished the island’s otherwise excellent track record at climate proofing its fishing industry.
Murray’s email on regional activities outlines SVG activities including the incorporation of the regional strategy and action plan and its partnership with several regional and international agencies and organisations to build resilience in the marine sector.
Over in the northern Caribbean, traditions are also testing regulations and international agreements. In Jamaica, the Sandals Foundation in association with major supermarket chains has launched a campaign to stop the capture and sale of parrotfish for consumption.
Scientists say that protecting the parrotfish is synonymous with saving the reefs and mitigating the effects of climate change. And further north in the Turks and Caicos, the government is searching for new ways to manage the conch and lobster populations. While trade is regulated, household use of both, sea turtles, and some sharks remain unregulated; and residents are resistant to any restrictions.
And while many continue to puzzle about the reasons behind the region’s climate readiness, scientists caution that there is no time to ease up. This week they rolled out, among other things, a coastal adaptation project and a public education and awareness (PAE) programme launched on April 26 in Belize City.
The PAE project, named Feel the Change, is funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Japan-Caribbean Climate Change Project (J-CCCP) public awareness programme. Speaking at the launch, project development specialist at 5Cs, Keith Nichols, pointed to the extreme weather events from severe droughts to changes in crop cycles, which have cost the region billions.
“Climate change is not just sea level rise and global warming; climate change and climate variability is all around us,” he said.
Credit: Inter Press Service News Agency