Caribbean News Now!

By Julie Carrington

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados -- A senior government official in Barbados is making a case for more climate change funding from international agencies at a time when growth and development in the region is threatened by sea level rises, storm surges and flooding.

Parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Jepter Ince, made this observation on Wednesday while addressing a one-day workshop entitled Development and Implementation of a Risk Management Approach to Decision Making in the Caribbean.

The former senator expressed concern about the existing inertia and warned that commitment to funding was needed to "slow the pace at which the planet was warming".

Given this situation, Ince said Caribbean governments had been proactive in managing the risks associated with climate change despite scarce resources.

He added: "By engaging in such actions, the Ministries of Finance and Planning and other supporting ministries would be in a position to better allocate their scarce resources and ensure that the national objectives are met, particularly those relating to climate change."

Ince also outlined government's greening initiatives as articulated in the draft Green Economy Scoping Study, whose initial focus is to strengthen sectors such as transportation, tourism, building, agriculture and fisheries.

"Therefore, the workshop adds to the ongoing climate effort by introducing another support tool for officials in the relevant ministries to use to make informed decisions," he suggested.

The workshop, which was organised by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre and the United Kingdom-based consultant agency -- Acclimatise -- is part of phase one of a programme that seeks to build resilience to climate change by developing support tools to guide government's strategic planners and budgetary decision-makers.

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