The 5th Council of Ministers of Environmental Sustainability met under the theme “Building Resilience on the Frontlines of Climate Change” in Montserrat on 11 July 2018.
Grenada’s Minister with responsibility for Environment, Honorable Simon Stiell, as outgoing Chairman of the OECS Council of Ministers, summarised 2017-2018 as a dynamic year of growth and activities focused on climate resource mobilisation for the OECS. He indicated that all 6 member states who are party to the climate change convention have now accessed Green Climate Funding (GCF) through its “Readiness” Funding window to be used to build capacity “in country” to support access climate finance and other resources. In addition, he indicated that the GCF Board approved significant projects for both Grenada (G-CREWS climate resilient water sector – US$42 million) and Antigua (Integrated Physical Adaptation and Community Resilience project US$20 million). He handed over Chairmanship to Montserrat’s Minister of Environment, Hon. David Osborne, for the 12 month period commencing July 2018.
This year the council discussed and deliberated on key topics including: continued focus on leveraging of climate finance; sargassum challenges and opportunities – where concrete actions were laid out, a common approach to sargassum challenges, and urgent was mobilisation of resources through OECS coordination was called for and endorsement of the Eastern Caribbean Climate Change Implementation Plan. Other topics included unlocking ocean wealth and the blue economy, marine spatial planning and ocean governance, waste management, energy diversification and implementation of nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH