Symposium intensifies OECS Civil Society participation ahead of UN Talks on climate change

lunes 20 de julio de 2015

The OECS Commission and its partners anticipate significant stakeholder participation as the region advances its negotiating strategy for the UN COP 21 forum on climate change in Paris France later this year.

OECS officials say this was reaffirmed at the recent Civil Society climate change Symposium on July 15th under the theme: Climate Change matters to me and to you.

During this first-time activity, presentations and overall attendance by key stakeholders including the youth, negotiators, teachers, fisher-folk, farmers and persons in the hospitality and wider private sectors deepened the level of civil society engagement to identify concerns and recommendations to the COP21.

Some of the areas covered were the relevance of climate change negotiations to Civil Society, results of surveys of civil society in Saint Lucia and Grenada, updates from the Working Partnership for climate change (WPCC) counterparts in OECS Member States and programmes in response to climate change conducted by the OECS Commission.

Also looking ahead to the COP 21 meeting a leading advocate for sustainable development management in the OECS is optimistic that there will be an agreement among countries at the world climate change forum in Paris this coming December.

Crispin D’Auvergne, Saint Lucia’s Chief Sustainable Development and Environment Officer has been a regular participant at the climate change COP meetings where for several years about 196 nations have been struggling for a legally binding agreement on the percentage reduction of greenhouse gases; the main culprit of climate change, chiefly emitted by larger more advanced countries of the world and which are causing global warming. This and its resulting problems are impacting on the natural resources of the OECS and other Small Island Developing States (SIDS). D’Auvergne who was addressing the OECS WPCC meeting on civil society participation on Wednesday, believes that nations are coming to grips with the reality that climate change is a serious threat to the more vulnerable countries.

Meanwhile the OECS Director General Dr. Didacus Jules says the battle will be enormous, and therefore the region must support and engender a policy of intense, effective and relentless advocacy with strong diplomacy. This he says will serve as the best weapon to ensure the voices of those in the line of climate change impacts are heard. He also welcomed France’s partnership in supporting the process of empowerment towards having the world address climate change issues confronting the OECS and other Small Island Developing States.

Dr. Asha Singh of the OECS Commission says the engagement of civil society will continue to build, such as having their concerns and other comments published through newspaper articles and radio and TV programmes leading up to and in COP 21 in December 2015. Regular interviews, discussions and issues on COP 21 will also be featured on the OECS 

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