Caribbean Climate Change Centre opens in Belmopan

Anyone who lives in this part of the world has noticed changes in the frequency and intensity of hurricanes and perhaps even changes in temperature and rainfall. But more often than not, the people of Belize and the wider Caribbean rely on information about the climate issues affecting our lives from outside sources. If our countries are even mentioned on the maps, weather news or global reports, the details are brief and sketchy. In an effort to help the region compile its own data, make its own projections and better inform its policies, in 2002 CARICOM leaders decided to establish a regional centre for climate change. Belize’s Prime Minister, Said Musa, offered to host it. This evening, the Caribbean Community Centre for Climate Change was officially opened in Belmopan during ceremonies at the George Price Centre. News Five spoke with CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington about the need for the centre.

Edwin Carrington, Secretary General, CARICOM
?Well first and foremost, anyone living in the Caribbean region at this time cannot fail to recognise the importance of this centre and the task it is to undertake. I mean already in the month of July we have some seven storms or hurricanes and the impact of that on life in the Caribbean, plus against the background of what happened last year in Grenada and elsewhere in the region, I think everyone in the region would understand that this centre is going to play a significant role in the future development of the region. Especially as studies are now showing that the process of global warming, which is indisputably taking place, is fuelling more intense hurricanes in the region. So I?ll be talking to them a little bit about the centre, what it?s supposed to be doing, and how the work which it has to do is going to impact not just on hurricanes and the question of the livelihoods in the sense of their homes and so forth, but on things like agriculture. We are talking about resuscitating agriculture in the C.S.M.E., the Single Market and Economy. The situation that we are seeing here in the global warming is going to affect that, it?s going to affect tourism, our reefs, and what is happening there is going to affect the fishing industry. So this centre is really at the beginning of a new dawn of realisation of the Caribbean Development problems.?

?First of all, Belize is a founding member, a key member of CARICOM. And one of the ways in which CARICOM functions is to allocate various responsibilities to various heads of government. The Prime Minister of Belize has responsibility for sustainable development, including matters which directly impact the centre. So in a sense the centre is here mainly taking into account the role of the Prime Minister of this country, but because we need to make sure that the institutions of the community are spread in such a way that everyone feels they have a stake in the community?s work. And this is one way in which Belizeans will be directly involved in the work of the community.?

Minister of Natural Resources, Johnny Briceño, says the opening of the centre is not only exciting, it is exactly the sort of contribution to CARICOM that our country should be making, given all this country has to offer in terms of natural resources.

Johnny Briceño, Minister of Natural Resources
?Belize was the best choice because Belize is really a living laboratory. We have a sea, we have the barrier reef, we have the watersheds, we have the rainforest, we have everything for us to be able to do the actually studies on climate change, so Belize was the natural choice.?

?Certainly for us it is a moment of accomplishment. We are very proud that Belize was chosen, and it is something that we have taken on very seriously. As you know, sustainable development is a driving force here in Belize. Whatever we do, Belize is being used as an example to the rest of the world, how we are using our natural resources sustainably; for instance from the issue of tourism to agriculture and to the use of our natural resources.?

Dr. Kenrick Leslie says the main aim of the centre will be helping the Caribbean gather critical information about the issues that affect us, using available international resources and expertise, then tailoring that to our own local situations.

Dr. Kenrick Leslie, Executive Dir., Climate Change Centre
?We need to develop models, climate models to address the issues of climate variability so that you could advise farmers or the construction industry or people building along the coast, what they should do to mitigate effects. So these are some of the programmes that we as the centre are expected to put together. For instance, tomorrow one of the meteorologists from the National Meteorological Service will be sent to Japan for one month to work on special climate change models, to study the region, that is, the small islands. The large models that they have, like for the United States and so on, the grid size is so large that you wouldn?t see the islands. Mr. Dennis Gonguez will be going to Japan out of a programme organised through the centre. Similarly, we have another gentleman going from Barbados on that same programme, all coordinated by the centre to address those issues.?

Manager of the project for Mainstreaming Adaptation to Climate Change, Dr. Ulric Trotz, says public awareness is key to the success of the effort and so is helping the political directorate of the various countries to use information on climate change in public policy and project formation.

Dr. Ulric Trotz, MACC Project Manager
?The question of public awareness is very important because this is one of our most difficult challenges, to get people at the grassroots level, to get our institutions, our professionals, to get our politicians to be aware of some of the issues so that we can chart some coordinated responses.?

Karla Heusner
?Do you foresee a time when politicians in the various countries will contact the centre or their representatives or whoever is the liaison and say, we have a certain project that we are looking at, can you look at this or should we be incorporating certain elements that we?re not considering??

Dr. Ulric Trotz
?Well I must say that the political directorate in the region are being very sensitive to climate change issues, and through CARICOM, we report on climate change issues as a regular feature the meetings with the council, ministers responsible for trade and economic development. The fact that we are here today celebrating the opening of a climate change centre, which was agreed to by heads of governments at their meeting in 2002 in Canouan and the fact that the Government of Belize offered to host the centre, shows that we have made some inroads at the political level. But we need to translate that into sort of actions that are reflected in our national plans [so that] whenever we sit to plan, we would consider what impacts climate change would have on our development plans and to start to insinuate climate change issues in our everyday operations.?

While the ceremonies today were held at the George Price Centre, the Climate Change Centre?s office is located on the second floor of the Lawrence Nicholas Building on Bliss Parade in Belmopan.