Jamaica still without a climate change unit

BY PETRE WILLIAMS-RAYNOR Environment editor williamsp@jamaicaobserver.com

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

JAMAICA is yet to establish a climate change unit, close to five years after plans were initially announced to have one up and running.

Still, Jeffrey Spooner, head of the Climate Branch of the Meteorological Office, insists it remains on the agenda and an item of priority. But before it can be a reality, he says there are some 'housekeeping' matters that must be dealt with.

"It is not something that we have given up. It is something that we are still working on," Spooner told Environment Watch.

"You have to get it (the unit) on the establishment (of the Met Office) and there is where we are trying to see how best it will sit into the public sector transformation that is taking place. We have to sustain this unit; it is not just about setting it up," he noted.

Spooner added that he was "very hopeful" that there would be some movement this financial year on the unit, which, up to two years ago, was projected to cost $8.7 million to set up.

The unit will, among other things, serve as a clearing house for all information on climate change, which is regarded as being a primary impediment to the development of Jamaica and other small island developing states over the medium to long term.

Once operational, Jamaica's climate change unit is also expected to:

* liaise with the Ministry of Land and Environment and the Office of the Prime Minister in order to have an input in the formulation of climate policy; and

* advance work on Jamaica's national reports on climate change for submission to the United Nations Framework Convention in Climate Change.

It is to be manned by four people, including two climate change officers and an information officer, in addition to the head of the unit.

Meanwhile, not only does climate change threaten rising sea levels, which puts islands at risk, it also threatens:

* warmer global temperatures which threaten an increase in the incidents of diseases such as dengue; and

* rising sea surface temperatures, which could devastate certain marine species.

Further, it threatens more intense weather events, including hurricanes and drought, which have negative implications for agriculture.