OECS holds virtual talks with European Union on climate-change

The Chairman of Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States – OECS as well as the Prime Minister of Grenada – Keith Mitchell with other heads of member states held a virtual meet with Executive Vice President of EU – Frans Timmermans during which both the parties discussed the issue of climate change & its impacts on the Caribbean region. The virtual meet was conducted this week only.

OECS Chairman outlined the devastation that the Caribbean region is suffering amid climate change and natural disasters, citing, “We are suffering acutely. The window of opportunity for demonstrating and delivering on 1.5°C aligned actions is rapidly closing. With warming increasing, there’s a growing and urgent need for us to adapt and to address loss and damage with increased focus and vastly scaled-up financial resources”.

Emphasizing the efforts and steps taken by the EU on climate change, OECS Chairman noted that the organization has already fulfilled its commitment to its share in the goal of US $100 billion in climate financing and now has proposed additional 4 billion Euros for climate finance in order to support the countries having low-income and to those who are climate-vulnerable nations through to 2027.

EU’s Executive Vice President noted, “If we act according to the science, keeping the 1.5 degrees goal within reach while lessening the impacts of climate change”, it can still be done, highlighting the requirement for risen resources to battle climate change.

While Dominican Prime Minister cited, “It is about the survival of our people and survival of our nations because we are living this daily. There’s no more hurricane season in the Caribbean islands. The entire 365 days, we live at the mercy of climate change and the impacts of climate change. The time has passed for action”.

Ambassador of the EU to Barbados and the OECS – Malgorzata Wasilewska, was also present in the meet.

Timmermans acknowledged OECS Heads of Government for the opportunity to hold open dialogue.

Apart from climate change, several other issues, their impacts and different ways to tackle those were also discussed by the authorities in the virtual meet.