Guyana’s President, His Excellency Bharrat Jagdeo, on Thursday, reiterated his call for Member States of the Caribbean Community to remain united in the Community’s advocacy on climate change.

The President’s call came in the wake of preparations for the 16th Conference of Parties (COP 16) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) slated for December in Cancun, Mexico.  Climate Change was one of the major issues which dominated the agenda of the Third Joint Meeting of the Council for Trade and Development (COTED) and the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD), which opened in Guyana on Thursday.

President Jagdeo asserted that the Liliendaal Declaration on Climate Change and Development was still the endorsed position of the Community in Climate Change negotiations and emphasised the need for Member States must have a common for dealing with climate change issues in the international arena.

The Declaration, issued by Heads of Government at their 30th regular conference in Guyana in July 2009, outlined, among other things, five thematic areas on which to focus negotiations: mitigation and adaptation, technology transfer, capacity building, financing and Reducing Emissions  from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD Plus) and support for consideration to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

The Guyana President said that while the disappointing outcomes of Copenhagen had prompted the need to take stock, the Community should not dwell on what had already passed but should focus on seizing the opportunities that had emerged from the Copenhagen Accord in 2009 “as flawed as it might have been.”

One such opportunity to which the President referred is the commitment under the Copenhagen Accord to make available to Caribbean and Latin American countries US$10 billion per annum, for climate change adaptation and mitigation, 65% of which are available grant resources and 35% of which are in the form of loans.

“We need to ensure that we seize this opportunity and tap into those resources by developing appropriate projects…,” he said.

The President made the observation that some countries were not ready to capitalise on those funds and urged the Member States to ensure that they meet the criteria for eligibility in accessing the funds and putting in place the necessary institutional arrangements to secure and manage those resources. In this regard he recommended that the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre work with Member States in helping them to develop projects appropriate for funding.

In addition, the Guyana President stressed the need for a strategy that balances technical and political positions in the upcoming Cancun negotiations.  Explaining his rationale, he stated “negotiations are not just about technical issues; its about politics, and decisions are invariably influenced by a country’s interest therefore we have to be careful that we don’t get sucked into the technical process that we lose sight of the political opportunities that we can seize.”

In charting the way forward, President Jagdeo said “we need to emerge from this meeting with a lucid sense of where we are and where we are going… We can’t afford to stand still; we can’t afford to wait on the international community to get things done for us…”

He then applauded Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister, the Honourable Stephenson King – who has lead responsibility for Sustainable Development including Climate Change – for what he described as his exemplary leadership and strong advocacy in the area of Climate Change and Sustainable Development.

In underscoring the President’s call, Prime Minister King told the meeting of environment ministers and technocrats that it was imperative to stress the political implications in the negotiations.  However, he also stated that the Community must continue to maintain its focus on its target of 1.5 Degree Celsius in stabilisation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions by the year 2050.

The Saint Lucia Prime Minister also endorsed the importance of maximising the resources which were pledged under the Copenhagen Accord and called for unity in the way forward, noting that “while we all have our individual agendas, we must understand that we are a body and should work together as a body.”