From 12-13 March this year, Grenada in the Caribbean was the host of the first regional International Climate Initiative (IKI) workshop on Smart Integration of Climate Change Adaptation in the Caribbean.
The Caribbean region is extremely vulnerable to climate change and has experienced several extreme events in the recent past, including more frequently occurring severe hurricanes, droughts and flooding, and growing coastal erosion. These events have posed heavy financial burdens on Caribbean countries. For this reason, The IKI has been active in the Caribbean region since 2008. The current portfolio comprises all 4 funding areas of the IKI programme, namely
- mitigating greenhouse gas emissions,
- adapting to the impacts of climate change,
- conserving natural carbon sinks with a focus on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) and
- conserving biological diversity.
IKI has recognised the need for a more structured dialogue between the different stakeholders of Caricom member states, the concerned implementing agencies and external partners. The workshop gave an opportunity for participants to share lessons learned and gain invaluable insight through peer-to-peer exchanges of the strategies that works and the challenges encountered by other projects in the region. The event attracted over 80 participants, representing 30 organisations and 10 governments.
The workshop was moderated by Dr Spencer Thomas, one of Grenada’s top negotiators at the UNFCCC COP. Thanks to his years of experience and deep knowledge of the framework within which adaptation and mitigation projects are developed, financed and implemented, Dr Thomas enhanced the participants’ workshop experience by the way he was able to guide discussions, address questions and summarise sessions.
Opening keynote addresses were delivered by Grenada’s Hon. Alvin Dabreo, Minister with responsibility for Forestry, and Fisheries and Nikola Zug from IKI/ZUG head office.
The workshop offered a variety of discussion format, from interactive panel discussions on broad topics such as “Integration of Climate into Governmental Processes” or “Climate Finance and Risk Reduction in the Region” to smaller group parallel working sessions on targeted topics around the NAP Process (Setting up the NAP Process, Financing NAP Implementation, NDC and NAP linkages and Integrating EbA into NAP and NDC processes), specific adaptation measures (coastal zone management and risk mitigation through budget/project screening and insurance) and a focus on the energy sector (linkages between Adaptation and Mitigation in the Energy Sector and Climate resilient Energy and Transport coupling).
A number of expert presentations were also included in the programme. On the first day, Aria S Louis, Head of Environment Division in Grenada presented on “Grenada’s Integrated Adaptation Process” and Dr Sherry Constantine from The Nature Conservancy, presented on “The contribution of MMAs to building climate resilience in the Eastern Caribbean.” On the final day, Tara James and Viktoria Seifert of Munich Climate Insurance Initiative presented on “Capacity, support and cooperation needs for enhancing resilience through climate insurance solutions in the Caribbean.”
With a programme which offered such diverse topics, it is no surprise that the event was deemed a success and met the expectation of the vast majority of the participants. The event was organised on behalf of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) in collaboration with Government of Grenada, the German Development Cooperation (GIZ), The Nature Conservancy, and the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative.
GIZ
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