KINGSTON, Jamaica — A team from the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (5Cs) is, over the next two days, expected to meet with Jamaican officials to help inform the development of a regional approach to climate change risk management.

Communications consultant with the 5Cs Tyrone Hall made the revelation in a telephone interview with the Jamaica Observer Tuesday.

According to Hall, the 5Cs team from Belize, where the centre is based, is comprised of Dr Neville Trotz, science advisor and deputy director of the centre as well as John Firth and Olivia Palin from the UK-based consulting firm Acclimatise.

He said they are to meet with Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change Robert Pickersgill in addition to “representatives from the PIOJ (Planning Institute of Jamaica), the Ministry of Finance and Planning, among other decision makers”.

“The visit is the consultation process that will involve three countries with comprehensive development plans — Jamaica’s Vision 2030, Barbados’ Green Economy Strategy and Suriname’s Green Vision,” Hall noted.

He added that there was no underestimating the value of the visit given the threats presented by the changing climate. Those threats include rising sea levels and the associated predicted loss of coastal livelihoods; warmer temperatures and the likelihood of increased incidents of diseases such as dengue and increased frequency and/or intensity of hurricanes and droughts.

As such, in addition to informing the development of a regional approach to climate change risk management, Hall said the visit will help to facilitate “the creation of a risk ethic in decision making through the creation of a web-based risk management tool, that is slated to be launched in April 2013”.

Work on that is being undertaken through the Caribbean Risk Management Project.

— Petre Williams-Raynor

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