Briceno addresses climate meeting in Trinidad

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Environment, Johnny Briceno, gave the keynote address at a conference on Mainstreaming Adaptation to Climate Change in Trinidad earlier this month. His topic was “Policy and People Issues in Regional Climate Change.” News 5 was provided with some excerpts and comments he made to the press following the opening ceremonies. Here are some highlights.

Johnny Briceno, Minister of Natural Resources

“Ladies and Gentlemen you are the experts on climate change. You know the issues and it is your challenge then to translate this knowledge into action by our people and decision makers in out country. However, it is important that we take into account the needs of the most vulnerable in our societies, those that depend on the natural resources of our countries for their livelihoods. I ask that you keep in mind that as individual countries our impacts are minimal, but as a coordinated group of countries we can achieve much.”

“The challenge here when you talk about issues of climate change, that there are issues that you would not see the effects until many years to come. But we need to find ways to tell our people that, look we need to change the way we are doing business, that if we do not do that, the very livelihood that we have that we are enjoying, probably our children, our grandchildren would not be able to enjoy it.”

Mainstreaming Adaptation to Climate Control, or MACC, is a twelve country regional initiative under the auspices of the World Bank and CARICOM with support from the Canadian International Development Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the University of the West Indies. The project provides technical support to participating countries for adaptation to, or mitigation of climate change.