Grenada welcomes assistance for climate adaptation and mitigation

Grenada welcomes assistance for climate adaptation and mitigation

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Details: Parent Category: Dec 2011; Category: Week ending Dec 17th, 2011; Published on Monday, 19 December 2011 17:03; Hits: 431

Prime Minister Tillman Thomas has welcomed a new facility from the Peoples Republic of China, under which Grenada will receive financial assistance for adaptation and mitigation efforts in the fight against climate change and global warming.

The Prime Minister said the new pilot project is in keeping with Grenada’s consistent appeal to the developed world on behalf of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), which are directly threatened by the effects of climate change.

The pilot project will provide more than two million US dollars in technology assistance to Grenada.

“We must continue to insist on the need for assistance for adaption and mitigation efforts recognizing that our small States, which will suffer most from the effects of climate change, are the ones which have contributed the least to green house gas emissions and global warming,” the Prime Minister said.

His comments come against the backdrop of the announcement of an AOSIS- China Climate Change Adaptation Pilot Programme (CAAP), by China’s Vice Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, Xie Zhenhua, during the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban, South Africa.

Grenada, during its tenure as chair of AOSIS and more recently, at the Commonwealth Summit in Australia, called on developed countries to give greater consideration to the transfer of technology and resources to developing countries, to assist in expanding the use of “clean and renewable energy.”

The Grenadian Leader said the survival of small island developing States depends on a new and binding legal agreement to manage climate change and its resulting hazards. He cautioned that while the world continues to debate, countries within the Caribbean and the Pacific are losing territory to the sea.