CASTRIES, St Lucia (CMC) — Caribbean countries have welcomed an initiative by the SIDS Resilience Foundation and Project Lodge designed to mobilise financing to build resilience, St Lucia’s Prime Minister Allen Chastanet has said.

Chastanet, who chaired the just ended Caribbean Community (CARICOM) summit here, said that a presentation had been made to the regional leaders who also welcomed the involvement of the Duke of York in promoting this initiative which will be brought to the attention of the upcoming UN High-Level Meetings.

Chastanet said that the regional leaders were thankful to the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres who endorsed the idea of being able to create SIDS Foundation for Resilience.

He said the Project Lodge has put a proposal together “to assist us in providing the governance structure and the mechanism to be able to get private sector funds to be able to assist us in our challenge with the SIDS.

“I very much appreciate the support of my colleagues with the understanding that at a later date there would be making a presentation on details on how that work.

“But the expectation is that we are going to be making a wider presentation to the SIDS in September and if in fact they are able to obtain the final endorsement from both CARICOM and also the Pacific SIDS the intention would be to try and quickly move to meet with some of the ODA (overseas development assistance) countries and multilaterals in terms of getting funds into this thing,” Chastanet told reporters.

He said he wanted to make the point “that what we are seeking to do is to get additional funds.

“This is not to tap into the funds we currently haven but this is funds we believe that this region is due as a result of what’s taking place with the global warming and climate change.

“We cannot handle the situation through mitigation. The SIDS (Small Island Developing States) are only a half a per cent of the emissions and if we are to have adaptation, it is impossible, and studies have proven that by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) for us to use our current sources or to borrow money directly to be able to fulfil our needs from an adaptation perspective.”

Meanwhile, regional governments have noted that in its capacity as Chair of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA), Jamaica will host the IV Ministerial Meeting of the ECPA on 27-28, February 2020, under the theme: Energy Resilience and Investment Opportunities.

The leaders also welcomed information that Jamaica will host the Seventh Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas and the Caribbean, which will take place July 8-9 next year, given the importance of advancing national and regional efforts to galvanise disaster risk financing.